Dead Reborn
by Demon Flame
Summary: Hallow overestimated her own cleverness when she attempted to summon a Britlingen to do her bidding. A divergence takes place when this new being takes a shine to our favorite resident telepath.
1. Chapter 1

At this time a year ago, no one in the world really understood what I was, or cared. I was just Crazy Sookie, the one with the wild brother, a woman others pitied and avoided, to varying degrees. Now here I was, on a freezing street in Shreveport, gripping the hand of a vampire whose face was legendary and whose brain was mush. Was this betterment?

And I was here not for amusement, or improvement, but to reconnoiter for a bunch of supernatural creatures, gathering information on a group of homicidal, blood-drinking, shape-changing witches.

I sighed, I hoped inaudibly. Oh, well. At least no one had hit me. My eyes closed, and I dropped my shields and reached out with my mind to the building across the street.

Brains, busy busy busy. I was startled at the bundle of impressions I was receiving. Maybe the absence of other humans in the vicinity, or the overwhelming perversion of magic, was responsible; but some factor had sharpened my other sense to the point of pain. Almost stunned by the flow of information, I realized I had to sort through it and organize it. First, I counted brains. Not literally ("One temporal lobe, two temporal lobes . . ." ), but as a thought cluster. I came up with fifteen. All of them were in an area to the rear. I figured that had been the work area.

Everyone in the building was awake. A sleeping brain still gives me a low mumble of a thought or two, in dreaming, but it's not the same as a waking brain. It's like the difference between a dog twitching in its sleep and an alert puppy.

To get as much information as possible, I had to get closer. I had never attempted to pick through a group to get details as specific as guilt or innocence, and I wasn't even sure that was possible. But if any of the people in the building were not evil witches, I didn't want them to be in the thick of what was to come.

"Closer," I breathed to Bubba. "But under cover."

"Yes'm," he whispered back. "You gonna keep your eyes closed?"

I nodded, and he led me very carefully across the street and into the shadow of the Dumpster that stood about five yards south of the building. I was glad it was cold, because that kept the garbage smell at an acceptable level. The ghosts of the scents of doughnuts and blossoms lay on top of the funk

of spoiled things and old diapers that passersby had tossed into the handy receptacle. It didn't blend happily with the magic smell.

I adjusted, blocked out the assault on my nose, and began listening. Though I'd gotten better at this, it was still like trying to hear twelve phone conversations at once. Some of them were Weres, too, which complicated matters. I could only get bits and pieces, but all the minds were thinking the same thing.

… In ius voco te

Quia repleta est voluntas

Exaudivit vocem meam, fortis sanguiem libidine

Exaudivit vocem meam, et inimicios tous occidet

In ius voco te...

My first thought was that they were casting a spell in Latin, but it could have been Spanish or Portuguese for all I knew. The magic in the air felt thicker with each passing minute. Little alarm bells began to ring in the back of my mind and I turned to Bubba with wide eyes.

"Bubba," I said, just a little louder than a thought, "you go tell Pam there are fifteen people in there, and as far as I can tell, they're all witches. And tell her they're casting a spell right now."

"Yes'm."

"You remember how to get to Pam?"

"Yes'm."

"So you can let go my hand, okay?"

"Oh. Okay."

"Be silent and careful," I whispered.

And he was gone. I crouched in the shadow that was darker than the night, beside the smells and cold metal, listening to the witches. Three brains were male, the rest female. Hallow was in there, because one of the women was looking at her and thinking of her . . . dreading her, which kind of made me

uneasy. I wondered where they'd parked their cars unless they flew around on broomsticks, ha ha.

Then I wondered about something that should already have crossed my mind.

If they were so darn wary and dangerous, where were their sentries?

At that moment, I was seized from behind.

"Who are you?" Asked a thin voice.

Since she had one hand clapped over my mouth and the other was holding a knife to my neck, I couldn't answer. She seemed to grasp that after a second, because she told me, "We're going in," and began to push me toward the back of the building.

I couldn't have that. If she'd been one of the witches in the building, one of the blood-drinking witches, I couldn't have gotten away with this, but she was a plain old witch, and she hadn't watched Sam break up as many bar fights as I had. With both hands, I reached up and grabbed her knife wrist, and I twisted it as hard as I could while I hit her hard with my lower body. Over she went, onto the filthy cold pavement, and I landed right on top of her, pounding her hand against the ground until she released the knife. She was sobbing, the will seeping out of her.

"You're a lousy lookout," I said to Holly, keeping my voice low.

"Sookie?" Holly's big eyes peered out from under a knit watch cap. She'd dressed for utility tonight, but she still had on bright pink lipstick.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"They told me they'd get my boy if I didn't help them."

I felt sick. "How long have you been helping them? Before I came to your apartment, asking for help? How long?" I shook her as hard as I could.

"When she came to the bar with her brother, she knew there was another witch there. And she knew it wasn't you or Sam, after she'd talked to you. Hallow can do anything. She knows everything. Late that night, she and Mark came to my apartment. They'd been in a fight; they were all messed up, and they

were mad. Mark held me down while Hallow punched me. She liked that. She saw my picture of my son; she took it and said she could curse him long distance, all the way from Shreveport make him run out in the traffic or load his daddy's gun. . . ." Holly was crying by now. I didn't blame her. It made me

sick to think of it, and he wasn't even my child. "I had to say I'd help her," Holly whimpered. "Mark said they had something big planned and needed the extra juice."

"Are there others like you in there?"

"Forced to do this? A few of them."

That made some thoughts I'd heard more understandable.

"And Jason? He in there?" Though I'd looked at all three of the male brains in the building, I still had to ask.

"Jason is a Wiccan? For real?" She pulled off the watch cap and ran her fingers through her hair.

"No, no, no. Is she holding him hostage?"

"I haven't seen him. Why on earth would Hallow have Jason?"

I'd been fooling myself all along. A hunter would find my brother's remains someday: it's always hunters, or people walking their dogs, isn't it? I felt a falling away beneath my feet, as if the ground had literally dropped out from under me, but I called myself back to the here and now, away from emotions I couldn't afford to feel until I was in a safer place.

"You have to get out of here," I said in the lowest voice I could manage. "You have to get out of this area now."

"She'll get my son!"

"I guarantee she won't."

Holly seemed to read something in the dim view she had of my face. "I hope you kill them all," she said as passionately as you can in a whisper. "The only ones worth saving are Parton and Chelsea and Jane. They got blackmailed into this just like I did. Normally, they're just Wiccans who like to live real quiet, like me. We don't want to do no one no harm."

"What do they look like?"

"Parton's a guy about twenty-five, brown hair, short, birthmark on his cheek. Chelsea is about seventeen, her hair's dyed that bright red. Jane, um, well Jane's just an old woman, you know? White hair, pants, blouse with flowers on it. Glasses." My grandmother would have reamed Holly for lumping all old women together, but God bless her, she wasn't around anymore, and I didn't have the time.

"Why didn't Hallow put one of her toughest people out here on guard duty?" I asked, out of sheer curiosity.

"They got a big spell thing set up for tonight. I can't believe the stay-away spell didn't work on you. You must be resistant." Then Holly whispered, with a little rill of laughter in her voice, "Plus, none of 'em wanted to get cold."

The alarm bells were back and ringing louder than ever. What exactly kind of spell where they casting in there that they needed to blackmail people into helping them perform it.

"Go on, get out of here," I said almost inaudibly, and helped her up. "It doesn't matter where you parked your car, go north out of here." In case she didn't know which direction was north, I pointed.

Holly took off, her Nikes making almost no sound on the cracked sidewalk. Her dull dyed black hair seemed to soak up the light from the streetlamp as she passed beneath it. The smell around the house, the smell of magic, seemed to intensify. I wondered what to do now. Somehow I had to make sure that the three local Wiccans within the dilapidated building, the ones who'd been forced to serve Hallow, wouldn't be harmed. I couldn't think of a way in hell to do that. Could I even save one of them? I had a whole collection of half thoughts and abortive impulses in the next sixty seconds. They all led to a dead end.

If I ran inside and yelled, "Parton, Chelsea, Jane out!" that would alert the coven to the impending attack. Some of my friends or at least my allies would die.

If I hung around and tried to tell the vampires that three of the people in the building were innocent, they would (most likely) ignore me. Or, if a bolt of mercy struck them, they'd have to save all the witches and then cull the innocent ones out, which would give the coven witches time to counterattack. Witches didn't need physical weapons.

Too late, I realized I should have kept a hold of Holly and used her as my entree into the building. But endangering a frightened mother was not a good option, either.

Something large and warm pressed against my side. Eyes and teeth gleamed in the city's night light. I almost screamed until I recognized the wolf as Alcide. He was very large. The silver fur around his eyes made the rest of his coat seem even darker.

I put my arm across his back. "There are three in there who mustn't die," I said. "I don't know what to do."

Since he was a wolf, Alcide didn't know what to do, either. He looked into my face. He whined, just a little. I was supposed to be back at the cars by now; but here I was, smack in the danger zone. I could feel movement in the dark all around me. Alcide slunk away to his appointed position at the rear door

of the building.

"What are you doing here?" Bill said furiously, though it sounded strange corning out in a tiny thread of a whisper. "Pam told you to leave once you'd counted."

"Three in there are innocent," I whispered back. "They're locals. They were forced."

Bill said something under his breath, and it wasn't a happy something.

I passed along the sketchy descriptions Holly had given me.

I could feel the tension in Bill's body, and then Debbie joined us in our foxhole. What was she thinking, to pack herself in so closely with the vampire and the human who hated her most?

"I told you to stay back," Bill said, and his voice was frightening.

"Alcide abjured me," she told me, just as if I hadn't been there when it happened.

"What did you expect?" I was exasperated at her timing and her wounded attitude. Hadn't she ever heard of consequences?

"I have to do something to earn back his trust."

She'd come to the wrong shop, if she wanted to buy some self-respect.

"Then help me save the three in there who are innocent." I recounted my problem again. "Why haven't you changed into your animal?"

"Oh, I can't," she said bitterly. "I've been abjured. I can't change with Alcide's pack anymore. They have license to kill me, if I do."

"What did you shift into, anyway?"

"Lynx."

That was appropriate.

"Come on," I said. I began to wriggle toward the building. I loathed this woman, but if she could be of use to me, I had to ally with her.

"Wait, I'm supposed to go to the back door with the Were," Bill hissed. "Eric's already back there."

"So go!"

I sensed that someone else was at my back and risked a quick glance to see that it was Pam. She smiled at me, and her fangs were out, so that was a little unnerving.

I had been listening to the chanting of the witches in the back of my head while I had been talking to Bill and Debbie. The ringing of those all important bells that warned me of danger growing louder by the minute. I opened my mouth to warn Pam about the spell the witches were casting when the chanting rose to a crescendo and a burst of magic washed over us all.

My shields flew down in an effort to see what was happening in the back room. There was a general sense of satisfaction with a dose of unease and in some cases out right fear. I figured the fear came from the three hostages.

"There's another person in there who wasn't there before!"

"Who is it?" Debbie asked.

I tried to focus my mind on the sixteenth brain but it was hard to pin down. I had never felt anything like it. The mind of the new person (supe?) was warm and growing hotter. Hollow was saying something to the person feeling smug but it was quickly overshadowed by the warm brain as it reached a blistering hot rage. And that's when an inhuman roar thundered through the still night. Screams and barking followed from inside the building. A battle was taking place in that building and our people weren't even in position yet.

An embarrassing sound escaped my throat as I took a step back. I had only been able to brush the mind for a moment, but that was enough.

"I don't know what it is, but its not human and it's mad."

"No shit." Debbie snarled.

Normally I would have taken issue with that sort of tone directed at me especially from some one who had locked me in the trunk of a car with a hungry vampire. I'd let it slide just this once, there were bigger fish to fry.

"We need to get in there now." Pam said.

I was struck with a sudden inspiration. I moved a few feet away with Bubba.

"Can you run back to the Wiccans, the ones on our side? You know where they are?" I whispered.

Bubba nodded his head vigorously.

"You tell them there are three local Wiccans inside who're being forced into this. Ask if they can make up some spell to get the three innocent ones to stand

out."

"I'll tell them, Miss Sookie. They're real sweet to me."

"Good fella. Be quick, be quiet."

He nodded, and was gone into the darkness.

More screaming pierced the night and several minds within the building went dark. I relayed this to Pam. She and Debbie must have somehow felt what was going on in the witches layer because they were antsy with anticipation.

Pam said, "Where have you sent Bubba?"

"Back to our Wiccans. They need to make three innocent people stand out somehow so we won't kill 'em."

"But he has to come back now. He has to break down the door for me!"

"But . . ." I was disconcerted at Pam's reaction. "He can't go in without an invitation, like you."

"Bubba is brain damaged, degraded. He's not altogether a true vampire. He can enter without an express invitation."

I gaped at Pam. "Why didn't you tell me?" She just raised her eyebrows. When I thought back, it was true that I could remember at least twice that Bubba had entered dwellings without an invitation. I'd never put two and two together.

"So I'll have to be the first through the door," I said, more matter-of-factly than I was really feeling. Another roar ripped through my mind and ears. "Then I invite you all in?"

"Yes. Your invitation will be enough. The building doesn't belong to them."

"Should we do this now?"

Pam gave an almost inaudible snort. She was smiling in the glow of the streetlight, suddenly exhilarated. "You waiting for an engraved invite?"

Lord save me from sarcastic vampires. "You think Bubba's had enough time to get to the Wiccans?"

"Sure. Let's nail some witch butt," she said happily. I could tell the fate of the local Wiccans was very low on her list of priorities. Everyone seemed to be looking forward to this but me. Even the young Were was showing a lot of fang.

There's not going to be much left." I said. "What ever's in there with them has killed most of them already."

"I kick, you go in," Pam said ignoring my statement. She gave me a quick peck on the cheek, utterly surprising me.

I thought, I so don't want to be here.

Then I got up from my crouch, stood behind Pam, and watched in awe while she cocked a leg and kicked with the force of four or five mules. The lock shattered, the door sprang inward while the old wood nailed over it splintered and cracked, and I leaped inside and screamed "Come in!" to the vampire behind me and the ones at the back door.

For a single moment, I was in the lair of the witches by myself and a single pair of lamp-like, yellow eyes zeroed in and pinned me to the spot. This was the brain that was burning hot, but when our eyes locked a flash of a memory so fast I almost missed it crossed the other persons mind. Normally, I never would have been able to process something that I had only glimpsed so quickly. But the memory was of a face I recognized. I had seen the same person in my mirror just this morning.

Then the room was full of hissing vampires and snarling wolves. And just like me they had all stopped once they had gotten into the room. Confusion was heavy, but I didn't need to be a telepath to figure that out. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a glow and followed it to see three of the witches huddled in a corner together shining. Okay, the Wiccans had come through with a spell and it was working.

Out of the fifteen brains I had originally sensed, only seven were still active. One of which was flickering between life and death. The sixteenth person, the one with the glowing yellow eyes, was the only one without injury. She was a gruesome sight, naked and dripping in the blood of the fallen witches. Hallow was kneeling before her whimpering with her throat in the other woman's clawed grasp. Mark was laying on the floor, his blank eyes open and mouth slack. He had been gutted from crotch to Adam's Apple by razor sharp claws. I looked away unable to stomach the sight.

"P-please," Hallow managed to gasp out. "Help me."

The other woman squeezed her hand tighter cutting off oxygen to the Were witch who struggled weakly for breath. The woman scanned around her and the unease grew. Her gaze briefly crossed with mine and the heat in her mind cooled a tiny bit to where it was tolerable. I never thought I'd had to worry about my brain melting before until I crossed this mind.

"Are you allies of this one?" Her voice was what I'd imagine a five star general would sound like, full of authority and just harsh enough to get the desired result. Even some of the younger wolves seemed to stand up straighter. The woman shook Hallow like a rag doll to emphasize her point.

"No!" I answered and once more I was pinned to the floor by the intensity of the woman's eyes. "But we need her alive to reverse a spell."

The woman's fierce expression softened, marginally, to aggravated annoyance as she turned to Hallow. "You heard her. Do it." There was such finality in her voice that Hallow didn't even hesitate before she began to wheeze out a counter spell in some old language.

The smell of magic rose in the air again but not as strong as it had been when all of the witches had been alive and chanting. When she was finished she coughed and tried to rub her sore throat but the other woman wasn't letting up. As a group, we all turned, or in my case, leaned to look at Eric who was looking around him angrily.

Bill was the one to confirm. "Sheriff?"

"What's happened?" He looked over to where Hallow was still in her subservient position in front of the woman. The naked woman. Covered in blood.

His fangs dropped at the sight and he lowered down to a crouch. That was proof enough for me. I looked to Pam to see her smiling triumphantly and with vampire speed she had crossed the room extinguishing the life of one of the three witches in Hallow's coven that were still alive. The woman didn't so much as flinch at the supernatural feat, or even when some of the wolves moved forward to finish off the other two.

The gray wolf I had come to associate with Colonel Flood rolled onto his back to transform back into the man I had first met. Now there were two people stark naked and unashamed in the room and by the looks of it all the wolves were transforming.

The coven, except for Hallow, was dead. The three other Wiccans who had been forced to help the witches were alive and free. Eric had been returned to his old self and didn't appear to have any memory of the past few days if Pam's recounting of events was anything to go by. All the Were's in the Shreveport pack were alive and uninjured as well as the vampires (sort of).

Now, the only issue was who this woman was and where had she come from?

A/N

I don't know why but I've just had this strong urge to write OC's lately. I'm actually worried because I've just read so many over the top OC's that I'm worried mine will follow the same path. Please let me know if you think its headed that way or if you have any suggestions or scene requests. No promises, but if it fits in with the story I can try to fit it in. And as always, please let me know what you think.


	2. Chapter 2

We were all back at Pam's house. Me, Hallow, the vampires, Wiccans, a couple of the Were's and the woman. She had identified herself to me as Victoriana Creed. I couldn't help but think it was such a pretty name for someone vicious enough to rip the arms off of a man.

After returning to Pam's house she had been ushered into a shower and given a large Shreveport Bossier Captains t-shirt to wear and a pair of shorts donated by a couple of Were's at Colonel Flood's request. If you looked past the tension and suspicion that surrounded her, she was actually quite handsome. Her bright golden eyes were large and complementing of her blond hair that was a shade or two darker than my own. While my eyebrows and eyelashes where a dark blonde, borderline brown, her's were the exact shade of her hair. In fact, all the hair on her body was blonde. Victorianna was taller than me by several inches probably about five eleven or there-abouts, and skinny. An unhealthy skin, like she hadn't eaten a good meal in a long time. The baggy clothing just made it that much more obvious.

"I told you," Hollow croaked. Her voice deeper and scratchy from abuse. "I was trying to summon a Britlingen. I was going to place the Britlingen under a spell to force it to serve me without paying." It was unnerving to see the woman we had all been tip toeing around so broken on the floor.

I leaned to my right where Pam was. "What is a Britlingen?" I whispered. Eric glanced up at us but made no further acknowledgment. It seemed almost too good to be true that he didn't remember anything from the last several days. Hopefully he would leave it be however unlikely.

"They are warrior's from another dimension. A witch has to summon them and negotiate a contract with their guild. You don't see them often because their price for crossing dimensions is so high." Pam said. "It's probably a good thing Hallow didn't manage to get a Britlingen."

"Why's that?"

"It would have started a war between our two worlds." The tone in her voice implied that maybe these warriors would give the supes of this world a run for their money.

The world as I knew it continued to grow everyday.

"And you're not a Britlingen?" Colonel Flood reiterated. This had all been said back at the abandoned building the witches had used as a headquarters.

"Correct."

Victoriana's eyes flickered from Hallow to mine once more. Despite the brief glances of my face in her mind, I had never seen her before. Those quick flashes were the only thing I was able to get off of her besides the sense of warmth. No thoughts and no emotions though every once in a while when she looked my way, I'd see curiosity in her eyes.

"And you're from a dimension different from this one?" Colonel Flood continued. He looked about fifteen years older than he should.

"It is similar, but not the same." Another flicker of the eyes. If I hadn't been watching her myself, I may have never noticed.

"Like an alternate dimension?" I asked. This was the first time I had heard of different dimensions outside of books and movies. Color me curious.

"I believe so."

A skinny girl in her late teens with tight clothing gave a derisive snort sounding more canine than human. "How do we know she's not just some weird shifter?"

Normally I'd agree, given the damage I had seen dealt to the witches coven. The claws and abnormally sharp teeth were also indicators of a supe. But, not only was her brain vastly different than anything I had ever encountered before, her claws and teeth were still present as though that's how they always were.

She turned to me and nodded. "The telepath, she can confirm."

Now everyone was on edge. Bill had pulled me aside to ask me to listen in on Victoriana to see if she was a threat. No one had mentioned my ability. She shouldn't know about it. No wonder I couldn't hear anything, she already knew to shield from me. "How did you know I was a telepath?"

"They are common where I come from. I know the feel of one trying to enter my mind." She glanced to those around her. "Vampires, werewolves and witches do no exist there."

Eric, who had been looking angry since the spell had been lifted looked to me with a frown. A glimmer of the man I had spent the last few days with shinning through but it quickly disappeared. "Is she lying?"

Victoriana, Hallow, Colonel Flood and Eric had all been in the center of the living room with the rest of us circling around them. The head Wiccan had resumed her previous position on the couch. I walked to the small group, avoiding Hallow. Even now, bound and broken, I couldn't help but remember the strong sense of fear she had instilled in me when she had come into the bar.

I reached out to touch her bare arm, it was surprisingly warm, hot even. Just like her brain. Closing my eyes, I entered her mind. It felt like she was trying to drop her shields in an effort to help me see her memories. I pulled my hand back as though she had burned me and looked up into her eyes. "She's telling the truth."

Victoriana nodded at me, her face completely blank as it had been most of the night. Eric looked angrier and Colonel Flood looked a combination of annoyed and tired, the head Wiccan looked as though she would fall asleep at any moment and Hallow was hoping her death would be quick. One look at Chow told me it wouldn't be. At this rate, we wouldn't get anywhere.

"Look," I said, earning everyone's attention. "We're not getting anywhere tonight. Hallow messed up the spell and the Wiccans don't know how to fix it and its almost dawn. Maybe we should regroup tomorrow after everyone's had a chance to rest?" There were also a few things I wanted to talk to Victoriana about without an audience.

Eric looked like he wanted to protest but gave a stiff nod to Chow who took this as his cue and scooped up Hallow by the roots of her hair. Colonel Flood rubbed his eyes and glanced toward Victoriana before discussing the best time to have another meeting with Eric and the head Wiccan.

"So what do we do with you?" Pam had moved over to Eric's side and was looking toward our otherworldly visitor. Though I couldn't read her mind, it looked like Pam wanted nothing more than to eat Victoriana and not as a bed time snack.

"She can stay with me." I said.

"No!"

The planets had aligned and Eric, Bill and Alcide seemed to of one mind for once and none of them wanted me anywhere alone with Victoriana. I gave them each a look because none of them had any right to say who I could have in my house and who I couldn't. "We have to put her somewhere." I turned to her. She was watching me curiously. "Would you like to stay with me until we can find a way to send you back, sweetie?" I was pretty sure she was younger than me.

"I would appreciate that." She gave a short bow of her head. The words fell out of her mouth stiffly, as though she was unused to saying such things. She was trying to be polite, however difficult.

I turned back to the two fuming vampires and growling Were. Pam had turned her head to hide her smirk, Chow didn't bother turning trying to hide his. "Well there you go. Let me know when you figure something out." I told them. "This way, my car's out front."

And with that said I said my goodbyes and left with Victoriana on my heels. We walked out into the cold night air to my car. I made it all the way to my car before Bill caught up with me. Heaving a sigh I pointed out my car and asked Victoriana to wait by it for me. She gave a nod before continuing on the route I had been on.

It was early January and she was dressed in a too big t-shirt and and shorts. It made me cold just looking at her.

"It isn't safe to be alone with her." Bill said in a low, imploring voice. "We don't even know what she is or what she'll do. You saw what she did to the witches coven."

I tried not to picture the torn limbs, strewn internal organs or lifeless eyes. I was unsuccessful. "She didn't attack those three Wiccans." I mumbled because I didn't want her to hear. I had been thinking of the three abducted Wiccans since I had seen them huddled in the corner together in that back room. "I don't think she'd hurt me. I think she's just lonely and curious."

"Doesn't that strike you as odd?" Bill said. "She was ripped from her dimension by a stray spell and she's merely curious?" He placed his hand on my shoulder in an effort to steer me back into the house.

I shut my mouth and swallowed the words I wanted to say in her defense. I had seen it in her mind and it wasn't my place to tell others. "You're just going to have to trust my judgment." I told him and pulled away with my car keys in my hand.

I didn't look back, but I could feel his eyes on my all the way to the car and all the way down the street.

We drove in silence until I got to the interstate. "So, Victoriana," I floundered for something to talk to her about. "That's a pretty name."

She glanced at me out of the corner of her eyes before returning her attention to the road. "I was named after my father." She had a very direct and almost robotic way of talking.

"I guess its a family name?"

"... Yes. My paternal grandmother was named Victoria."

It would have been nice if I could have taken a peek inside her head again to see what she was thinking about. But she had had to force her memories to the surface of her mind for me to see. Well, all except that one memory that was so dominate in her mind that I could see it despite her shields.

"You share many similarities with a woman from my dimension." It was almost as if she had read my mind. At least that explained why she had kept me in her sights since her arrival.

I looked at her from the sides of my eyes but her focus was on my dashboard. Her brows were drawn together in concentration. "Oh?" I prodded.

For a moment I didn't think she'd answer. "Her name was Birdy and she was a telepath like you. She's the one who named me and took care of me when I was young."

I didn't miss the past tense. "Was she your mother?"

Victoriana shook her head. "No. My mother was a whore." I choked. "She died during the pregnancy from previous injuries."

I opened and closed my mouth several times. Honestly, I had no idea what to say to that. After several minutes I decided just to skip over it. "I'm sorry to hear that." Victoriana shrugged. "My parents died when I was seven so my Gran raised my brother and me."

There was silence.

"Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

She nodded. "I had an older brother. His name was Graydon." More past tense. "He killed Birdy."

I had a sinking feeling she killed Graydon.

"So I guess it's just you and your dad then?"

"No. He's been dead for several years."

This conversation just kept getting more awkward. Dead mom. Dead dad. Dead brother. Dead Birdy. She had been alone a lot longer then I had thought. Should I even try to continue a conversation? With her home ravaged by war it was probably best to stay silent.

"I've upset you?"

I turned to look at Victoriana trying very hard not to grimace. "It's my fault, I didn't mean to bring up all those awful memories for you."

If anything she looked confused and concerned. "I don't understand."

"Your family and friends are all dead? I'm sure you loved them, didn't you?" This was up there on my list of strange conversations.

"Ah, I see." She nodded in understanding. "The only one I was fond of was Birdy who had been kind to me as a child."

I let that digest for several moments before moving on to a different subject. "It must be strange to be in a new world with vampires and werewolves."

"While we don't have supernatural beings in my dimension, we did have non-humans."

Finally, a safe conversation topic! "Oh! Like what? You aren't human right?"

"No, I'm not. There are five groups. The humans, of course, made up the bulk of the population. Then there were the titans. Some can fly, some are bullet proof and some have super-human strength."

"Like superheros?" I could just picture Superman now flying through Shreveport to save the city from some sort of disaster.

"Mostly they were recruited by various governments as super-soldiers. They were the more common non-humans. Next were the seer's. Classified as so because they can see what others can't. Most were telepaths or illusionists, but there were a few who could see across great distances and every couple of hundred years a precognitive seer was born. Then there were shifters, though, I suppose a better term is meta-morph. They could take the shape of any living thing including humans. Shifters made excellent spies, but there weren't many of them."

"Humans, titans, seers and shifters. Are you in the last group?"

"Yes. The last group were the farals, we were very few in number. We share more in common with the shifters of this world. We can not shift into animals but we share many attributes of animals. I am part of a subset within this group known as healers. When I was born, there were only three others, all men."

"Healer, what does that mean?" I had a feeling I knew. It had seemed strange to me that she hadn't sustained so much as a scratch (as far as I'd seen, and I'd seen it all) after a battle with the entire coven.

"It means our cells regenerate at an accelerated rate which ties into our longevity. It is very difficult to kill us. We are considered the elite among all the non-humans." She explained with a tint of pride in her words.

I knew that word, it had been one of my word of the day's several weeks back. "So you live longer than the others in your world? How old are you?"

"Correct." Victoriana said. "I am in my fourth decade. My father was nearly past his fifth century at the time of his death." If I had had to hazard a guess, I wouldn't put her a day over twenty-three. Maybe.

"Your world sounds amazing."

"... It was." There was a hint of something in her voice that I couldn't quiet identify. Regret, maybe?

I had stepped on another conversational land mine. "Those memories you showed me," I started slowly. "They weren't just memories of battlefields, were they?"

There was more silence and I took the turn off for Bon Temps.

"The world is dying. There are few left in the world. Nothing grows, food is scarce. The animals have been hunted to extinction."

Since the moment I first laid eyes on her, Victorianna had presented a strong and confident front. From our awkward conversation I suspected she was socially stunted, the vampires might appreciate that though. But now, she sounded small and sad.

I should really keep my mouth shut. "You know, I think Hallow overshot her spell when she cast it. There may not be a way to send you back."

Victoriana turned to me with those wide yellow eyes. "I was born into a world of war. My skills are useless here."

Resolutely, I decided not to think of what all kind of skills she may possess. "You can always learn something new." She nodded along with my reasoning. "This is a new start full of possibilities." I offered her a kind smile.

She didn't return it but I could see hope in her eyes and it gave her a child-like glow. "You are very much like Birdy."

I pulled the car to a stop behind the house and stepped out. Victoriana looked toward the house with a frown and then turned to look at me. "I had thought you lived alone?"

I paused on my way to the back door. "I do."

Victoriana glanced back to the house. "Allow me to enter first." I opened my mouth to argue but she held up her hand. "I must insist. I can survive a multitude of possibilities while you simply cannot."

Well, how was I supposed to argue now? I still didn't like it. "Alright, but be careful." I did a quick scan to find someone in my kitchen. A shifter. I was pretty sure I knew who was in my kitchen.

She tilted her head and her lips twitched as though I was being funny. I passed her my keys and followed her in. I came up right behind her and grabbed Jason's shotgun out from behind the water heater. She reached behind her and I passed her the gun. I stayed back as she stepped into the house and flicked the light on. A shot fired and I rushed in to see Debbie Pelt's shocked face a second before Victoriana returned fire.

I slide to the floor with a detached numbness after Debbie's body fell. There wasn't much left of her chest or face anymore. Tomorrow I would feel guilty for only thinking of what a mess she made even in death. But right now, I was mentally compiling a list of cleaning products to use before her blood and brain tissue stained my kitchen surfaces.

"If you begin cleaning I can dispose of her body."

I looked up to see Victorianna place the shotgun down on the table. Her attention was on digging the bullet out of her shoulder. I jumped to my feet and rushed to her side, forcing myself not to concentrate on the squishing sounds her flesh made around her fingers. "Are you alright? Do you need to sit down?"

She looked up to me with the bullet between her index finger and thumb. "I'm fine." She set the bullet down on the table and walked around to Debbie. I stared at the bullet for a long moment. It had been meant for me. If Victoriana hadn't been here to intercept it I would be dead. A thought occurred to me then. I looked up to ask her how she had known someone was in the house but a completely different question tumbled from my lips instead.

"What are you doing?"

Victoriana was undressing her. "The body will decompose faster without clothes."

I nodded. That seemed reasonable to me. "How did you know she was here?" Not even the vampires or Were's would have been able to hear her laying in wait for me. Though they might have caught her scent eventually.

She looked up at me as she was removing Debbie's jacket. "I could hear another heartbeat in the house."

My eyebrows shot up. "You could hear her heartbeat even outside?"

She gave a firm nod. "Yes. My clan was gifted with extraordinarily heightened senses among the farals."

Extraordinary indeed.

I turned around on auto pilot to gather my mop and bucket from the space next to the dryer. When I returned to the kitchen it was to see Victoriana lift a stark naked Debbie Pelt onto her shoulder as though she weighed nothing. Maybe she had some kind of enhanced strength. I'd have to ask her later.

I set to my task of clean up duty as soon as she was out of the door. I had to take down the curtains over the sink and soak them in the washing machine in cold water, and I stuck my coat in with them, though without much hope of its being wearable again. I pulled on rubber gloves and used bleach-soaked wipes to go over and over the chair and table and floor, and I sprayed the front of the cabinets with wood soap and wiped and wiped.

You just wouldn't believe where specks of blood had landed. I realized that attention to these tiny details was helping me keep my mind off of the main event, and that the longer I avoided looking at it squarely the longer I realized there was nothing I could undo. There was no way I could mend what I had done. I'd had a limited number of choices, and I had to live with the choice I'd made. My Gran had always told me that a woman, any woman worth her salt, could do whatever she had to. If you'd called Gran a liberated woman, she would have denied it vigorously, but she'd been the strongest woman I'd ever known, and if she believed I could complete this grisly task just because I had to, I would do it.

When I was through, the kitchen reeked of cleaning products, and to the naked eye it was literally spotless. I was sure a crime scene expert would be able to find trace evidence (a tip of the hat to the Learning Channel), but I didn't intend that a crime scene expert would ever have reason to come into my kitchen.

She'd broken in the front door. It had never occurred to me to check it before I came in the back. So much for my career as a bodyguard. I wedged a chair under the doorknob to keep it blocked for the remainder of the night.

Victoriana returned just as I walked back into the kitchen. If the murder and disposal of a woman didn't solidify our budding relationship, then there was no hope. She looked around the kitchen with what was apparently a professional eye and gave me a nod of approval. I wasn't necessarily sure that was a good thing but decided that could wait until morning.

Since she would be staying awhile, I sent Victorianna to the upstairs bedroom that had belonged to Jason when he lived here with me and Gran. I gave her one of Eric's Walmart shirts to sleep in before she went to bed. Tomorrow I'd have to dip into my own meager savings and get her some clothes, until then, she would just have to borrow whatever I had.

The shower was my next stop followed by falling into bed. After that, whether I willed it or not, I was sucked down into a black hole of exhaustion.

A/N

I was so happy to see reviews for my first chapter even though its largely ripped from the book. The further I get in the story the less I'll do that. It took everything I had no to post the next chapter right then. Anyway, I suppose you'd technically call this fic a crossover but the crossover is an AU and an OC too, so I won't label it. But tell me if you can guess what the other verse is? Brownie points to the one who does!


	3. Chapter 3

I woke up the next morning far earlier than I would have liked to someone knocking at my door. Dragging myself out of bed, I fumbled for my robe on my way to answer the door. It was Alcide. He was already standing in the house and regarding the one who had answered the door with suspicion. Victoriana was still in one of Eric's t-shirts and nothing else. The hem of the shirt just barley covered her womanly goodies not that we hadn't all seen them last night. Alcide looked at me when he heard me coming down the hall and I was displeased to note the flicker of relief in his brain. Did he think she would kill me?

Well, there had been a death. But it wasn't mine.

"Morning, Sookie." He said with a nod.

I returned the nod with a sleepy wave and a yawn before heading into the kitchen. They both followed me and took seats at the kitchen table while I started a pot of coffee. I looked around the kitchen for any traces of Debbie Pelt I might have missed. If anyone would be able to pick out her scent it would be Alcide. A quick dip into his head told me the only thoughts he were having were about the stability of Victoriana and about the meeting he had come to tell me about.

While I waited for the coffee I went over to the Frigidaire and pulled out some sausages and eggs. I made extra for both Alcide, because he was a big man and werewolf, and for Victoriana because I wasn't sure when the last time she ate was.

Pouring myself a mug I offered one to Alcide, who accepted, and Victorianna, who denied, before setting plates full of sausage, eggs and toast. Both dug into it with vigor and we sat in silence while we ate. When everything had been finished off I cleared the plates and placed them in the sink before pouring Alcide and I a second cup of coffee and sitting down.

Alcide was still frowning at Victorianna as though any moment she might leap over the table and attack, he had been looking at her that way since they had sat down. There was no telling how long Victoriana had been awake. A quick glance at the wall clock told me that it was past ten. My Gran was rolling in her grave at more poor hosting. My guest didn't seem to mind my having overslept or Alcide's non-too-subtle glaring. She was just watching him curiously and completely at ease which seemed to anger Alcide further. For a Were, he was broadcasting an awful lot this morning, he thought she was mocking him since she had taken down the entire coven single handed in a matter of minutes while the combined forces of the Area 5 vampires, the Shreveport Were pack and the local Wiccans hadn't had lifted a single finger.

I placed my hand on his arm in an effort to calm him. As far as I saw it, she had just defended herself and hadn't been looking to show anyone up. Besides, I was still too tired from last night to deal with any Were aggression this morning.

"The Wiccans are reaching out to other covens to find a solution to Hallow's spell. They think she put to much force behind the summoning and got a different dimension than the one she was aiming for." I flicked my eyes to Victoriana who was sitting up straighter and frowning. I really shouldn't have said anything last night. But after learning that her world was dying, the idea would have latched to her brain sooner or later. "The Colonel is going to talk with Claudine and see if she can help. And Eric is going to talk to the Queen. For now we're just going to have to keep her close."

He turned his head to cast her a weary glance.

I frowned at him, it bothered me that he was talking about her as though she weren't here one moment and then the next he was smothering her with suspicion. He was acting like she had fought tooth and nail to come to our dimension just to mess with him and his. I turned to Victoriana with a smile. "Looks like you'll be staying here a little longer."

Her lips twitched up in what I could only describe as pleased.

"Now hold on." Alcide said. "No one feels too comfortable with her staying with you."

I rolled my eyes. "She's sitting right here, stop talking about her like she's not. And you're welcome here."

Alcide looked like he'd rather suck a lemon. "We don't know anything about you, what you're capable of or what you'll do." He said, finally addressing Victoriana. "Sookie here, is a friend of the pack." He glanced to me as though begging me to speak up. "If anything happens to her, we'll kill you."

Victoriana had the decency not to look as amused as her brain waves felt. "I promise no harm will come to you from my hand during my stay with you." There was a lot of wiggle room in that statement but I probably didn't have anything to worry about. Maybe.

"First things first, we need to get you some clothes. And then maybe we can find something for you to do during the day while we wait to here from the Wiccans." I took a sip of my coffee and suppressed purr. This was just what I needed.

"I can help with the first." Alcide said looking about as sour as if he had sucked on a lemon. "I swung by my dad's house this morning and got some of my sister's old clothes. You look about the same size as she was in high school." He got up and walked back out to his truck.

"I've never held civilian employment before. I'm not sure where I should look in terms of work."

While I pondered that, Alcide returned with a gym bag full of clothes. "Do you know of any job openings for Victoriana?"

He looked her over. "What did you do before, in your dimension?"

I closed my eyes and took a long drink of coffee.

"Assassination, torture and interrogation, infiltration and theft." She said without missing a beat.

When I opened my eyes, Alcide was glaring at me. Those qualifications weren't something you'd usually see on a resume. Maybe I'd just ask Sam if he needed any help at the bar. Alcide left shortly after but not before issuing me a warning and Victoriana a threat. This was the prelude (word of the day) to a long day, I just knew it. I directed Victoriana to the shower and made sure she had fresh towels before heading to my own room to get ready for the day.

When I came back out I found Victoriana sitting on the floor in front of the television, flipping through the channels at random intervals. She glanced up to me when I walked in the room and gave me a wave with a blank face.

Alcide's sister was tall like her brother and skinny. Victorianna was tall and

underfed, but her hips were wider. I had often heard Arlene, my long time bottle red headed friend and fellow barmaid, refer to wide hips on women as baby bearing hips. My inter-dimension traveling guest was filling out those borrowed jeans pretty damn well. The white t-shirt and over sized flannel button up made her look like she was sixteen. It wasn't like anyone would accuse her of being upward of forty years old anyway. Arlene would hate her if she ever found out.

I took a seat on the recliner and leaned forward. "Alright, we didn't get a chance to talk last night what with..." I struggled for a word or phrase to describe the death of Debbie Pelt.

"Kill and disposal of the woman?" Victoriana offered. Not helpful.

I frowned. "I think technically it was self-defense." My words were a lot more confident then I felt.

She shrugged.

"Anyway, I wanted to lay down some of the rules if you're going to be staying here." Victoriana clicked the TV off and turned her body to face me. "You'll need to find a job and chip in on the household expenses and chores." She nodded her head. "I also expect you to keep your room clean and help keep the house clean."

"I accept your terms."

"Also, most supernatural's, like werewolves and faeries, are still hidden from the world. So far, most humans only know about the vampires." I was trying to think of a way to tell her to hide who she really was. I wonder how all the adults in my childhood had managed it.

"I need to appear human?"

I grimaced and nodded. Her lips twitched until one corner had lifted up so that I could see the very sharp and elongated canines. In fact, it looked like all her molars and bicuspids were sharper than average. I thought of the thundering roar I had heard that night before we stormed the building. Exactly how terrifying would it have been to see that mouth open wide full of razor sharp teeth and bellowing in rage? I decided, I'd never want to be on that end of her, but then, I never thought I'd have to be.

"It's been a long time since I had to blend into society." A spark I hadn't seen before twinkled in her bright eyes. She looked down to her dark claws. "Do you have any nail polish?" Victoriana asked as she retracted them further into her fingers.

Her claws were still thick and pointed but maybe if no one looked too hard, they wouldn't notice. I went to my bathroom and pulled out the small basket under the sink that had all my nail maintenance supplies. We sat ourselves at the kitchen table and proceed to paint our nails. I picked out a pretty pink color I had gotten in High School while Victoriana had used a pale and shimmery gold color that disguised her claws pretty well.

"What about your teeth?" As white and straight as they were, they were still off putting to humans.

"I'll just have to be careful how I talk."

"And... your eyes?"

She frowned. "I guess I could get contacts." It didn't look like she liked that idea too much.

"Well," I said looking closely at her eyes. They were darker than the other night, almost a bright amber. On that night, they had appeared to glow. "I don't think you'd need to go that far." I stood up and clapped my hands. "Why don't we run into town and pick you up a few more amenities. I don't think Alcide brought you any underwear."

"He did not." If she was going to borrow any of my clothes then she was going to have to wear underwear.

It was just past dark by the time we returned from Walmart. I sent Victoriana up to her room with her new cheap clothes and I rushed to my room to change for work. I came back out to see my new roommate sitting on the stairs waiting for me. We had decided that she would hang out in the bar while I worked. This was good for several reasons. One, I could keep an eye on her. Two, I could see how she interacted with other, normal people.

I set Victoriana in a seat at the end of the bar and waved off Sam's questions with a promise to answer them later. With the promise of snow tonight, not many people were out and those who were left early and sober. Mostly. The few who did want to chance a drive home in the cold were all too interested in my new friend. I had had to think quickly of a way to explain her when Maxine Fortenberry (mother of my brother's best friend and good friend of my late Gran) pulled me to the side to ask. The official story was that she was a friend I had met while I was in Dallas last year. We had kept in touch and after a bad relationship, she had decided for a change of pace and had come to stay with me.

As it turns out, Victoriana is an excellent actress. As soon as she had a cover story she ran with it. It was like she was a whole different person was in her skin. Even Sam gave her some sympathy pats to the shoulder when she recounted how her high school sweetheart, Bear Walker, had come home to their shared apartment with news that he was leaving her for his pregnant girlfriend. She had even managed to work up some fake tears that she hastily wiped away.

Probably I should be worried if she was such a talented liar. But she was just so awkward when she didn't need to pretend that I had trouble believing she had lied to me yet. Maybe I had been too hasty to invite her to my home. She said so herself that her previous profession had been assassination among other things. For now, I would make a point on listening into what thoughts I would be able to gleam from her. Just to be sure.

Time seemed to fly once I was sure she wouldn't blurt out about her taboo inter-dimensional travels. There was no need to get Bon Temps up in arms with the revelation of witches and werewolves. Before I knew it, the bar was closed and I was helping Same put the chairs up on the tables so that Terry Bellefleur could come in and mop and clean the toilets early the next morning.

"Tell me about last night," he said, and for one second I thought he was asking me about Debbie. Then, of course, I knew he referred to the battle with the witches, and I was able to give him an account.

"So that was all an act. She's really from a different dimension?" Sam sounded a bit dazed at the thought. I knew I was still having trouble coming to terms with it. He nodded after a moment. "Alright, so then the whole coven is dead and she managed to force Hallow to reverse her spell? Eric was himself again?"

"As far as I could tell."

"What did he have to say about the experience?"

"He didn't remember anything about it," I said slowly. "He didn't seem to have a clue."

Sam looked away from me when he said, "How are you, with that?"

"I think it's for the best," I told him. "Definitely."

"Too bad you weren't working the afternoon shift," he said, somehow following a similar train of thought. "Calvin Norris was in here."

"And?"

"I think he came in hopes of seeing you."

I looked at Sam skeptically. "Right."

"I think he's serious, Sookie."

"Sam," I said, feeling unaccountably wounded, "I'm on my own, and sometimes that's no fun, but I don't have to take up with a werewolf just because he offers."

Sam looked mildly puzzled. "You wouldn't have to. The people in Hotshot aren't Weres."

"He said they were."

"No, not Weres with a capital W. They're too proud to call themselves shifters, but that's what they are. They're were-panthers."

"What?" I swear I saw dots floating in the air around my eyes.

"Sookie? What's wrong?"

"Panthers? Didn't you know that the print on Jason's dock was the print of a panther?"

"No, no one told me about any print! Are you sure?"

I gave him an exasperated look. "Of course, I'm sure. And he vanished the night Crystal Norris was waiting for him in his house. You're the only bartender in the world who doesn't know all the town gossip."

"Crystal she's the Hotshot girl he was with New Year's Eve? The skinny black-headed girl at the search?"

I nodded.

"The one Felton loves so much?"

"He what?"

"Felton, you know, the one who came along on the search. She's been his big love his whole life."

"And you know this how?" Since I, the mind reader, didn't, I was distinctly piqued.

"He told me one night when he'd had too much to drink. These guys from Hotshot, they don't come in much, but when they do, they drink serious."

"So why would he join in the search?"

"I think maybe we'd better go ask a few questions."

"This late?"

"You got something better to do?" He had a point, and I sure wanted to know if they had my brother or could tell me what had happened to him. But in a way, I was scared of finding out.

I handed Victoriana my keys and made sure she was comfortable driving home in the snow. As it turns out, she had been born and bred in Canada, capital of the snowstorms for this part of the world. Sam locked up the bar and we headed toward Hotshot. I prayed to God, that Jason was still alive.

Jason was alive and sleeping off his ordeal in my old room with the hall light on and the door cracked. I couldn't explain the relief that flooded me when I saw him in that shed. He would probably turn into a panther for a couple nights out of the month for the rest of his life, but he could still lead a normal life.

Sam and Victoriana were sitting in the kitchen, Sam with a cup of hot tea. Judging the weary look on his face, I guess he now had first hand experience of how off putting and awkward she could be at times. Honestly, she wasn't any worse than most vampires. He looked up from watching the steam of his tea and smiled at me. "How is he?"

I sank down into my usual spot. "He's better than I thought he would be," I said.

"Considering he spent the whole time in the shed with no heat and being bitten every day."

"I wonder how long Felton would have kept him?"

"Until the full moon, I guess. Then Felton would've found out if he'd succeeded or not." I felt a little sick.

Victoriana tilted her head in what I had come to associate as her go to confusion pose. I would need to explain about the secret supernatural world she had found herself in. Maybe tomorrow, if Jason was feeling up to it, I'd sit them both down together and explain all I knew about.

"I checked your calendar. He's got a couple of weeks."

"Good. Give Jason time to get his strength back before he has something else to face." I rested my head in my hands for a minute. "I have to call the police."

"To let them know to stop searching?"

"Yep."

"Have you made up your mind what to say? Did Jason mention any ideas?"

"Maybe that the male relatives of some girl had kidnapped him?" Actually, that was sort of true.

"The cops would want to know where he'd been held. If he'd gotten away on his own, they'd want to know how, and they'd be sure he'd have more information for them."

I wondered if I had enough brainpower left to think. I stared blankly at the table: the familiar napkin holder that my grandmother had bought at a craft fair, and the sugar bowl, and the salt- and peppershakers shaped like a rooster and a hen. I noticed something had been tucked under the saltshaker.

It was a check for $50,000, signed by Eric Northman. Eric had not only paid me, he had given me the biggest tip of my career.

"Oh," I said, very gently. "Oh, boy." I looked at it for a minute more, to make sure I was reading it correctly. I passed it across the table to Sam.

"The big blonde dropped it off while you were with Sam." Victoriana said.

"Wow. Payment for keeping Eric?" Sam looked up at me, and I nodded. "What will you do with it?"

"Put it through the bank, first thing tomorrow morning."

He smiled. "I guess I was thinking longer term than that."

Victoriana retreated up the stairs shortly after leaving me and Sam to say our goodbyes. "Good night." I said. "Please drive careful going back." I thought briefly of offering him the last empty bed upstairs, but dismissed it. I usually kept that floor closed off and it was cold up there, though Victoriana didn't seem to mind it. She had informed me that the temperature would need to drop considerably before she'd feel a chill. I'd still been working on warming the upstairs up but it was slow going. Besides, Sam would be more comfortable in his own bed.

"I will." He said. "Call me in the morning."

"Thanks again."

"Enough thank-yous." He said. Someone, either Eric or Victoriana, had put nails in the front door to hold it shut until I could get a dead bolt put on. I locked the back door behind Sam and I barely managed to brush my teeth and change into a night gown before crawling into bed.


	4. Chapter 4

The first thing I did the next morning was check on my brother. Jason was still deeply asleep, and in the light of the day, I could clearly see the effects of his imprisonment. His face had a coating of stubble. Even in his sleep, he looked older. There were bruises here and there, and that was just on his face and arms. His eyes opened as I sat by the bed, looking at him. Without moving, he rolled his eyes around, taking in the room. They stopped when they came to my face.

"I didn't dream it." He said. His voice a hoarse whisper. "You and Sam came and got me. They let me go. The panther let me go."

"Yes."

"So what's been happening while I was gone?" He asked next, "Wait, can I go to the bathroom and get me a cup of coffee before you tell me?"

I liked his asking instead of telling (a Jason trait, telling), and I was glad to tell him yes and even volunteer to get the coffee. Jason seemed happy enough to settle down in the living room with Victoriana who was watching the History Channel on a very low volume setting. According to her, her hearing was sensitive enough to hear a heartbeat in the kitchen from outside. Thankfully, she had started a fire and when she had heard me and Jason up had even made breakfast. There was a lot of meat.

I took a seat by Jason on the love seat and handed him a mug of coffee and set my own on the table next to our plates. Normally, I would have offered one to Victoriana, but it seemed all she ever drank was water and she had gotten her own glass before I had gotten up and could offer. I let Jason take a couple sips of his coffee before I launched in to my story. I told him about Catfish's phone call, our to-and-fro with the police, the search of the yard and my conscription of his Benelli shotgun, which he immediately demanded to see.

"You fired it!" He said indignantly, after checking it over.

"I fired it."

We both turned to Victoriana who had turned around with a completely blank face. Jason waited for her to elaborate and when she didn't he turned to me. I just stared at him. "I guess it worked like a shotgun is 'spose to." He said slowly. "Since y'all are sitting here looking pretty much okay."

"Thanks, and don't ask again." I said.

He nodded.

"Now we just have to think of a story for the police."

"I guess we can't just tell them the truth."

"Sure, Jason, let's tell them that the village of Hotshot is full of were-panthers, and that since you slept with one, her boyfriend wanted to make you a were-panther. too, so she wouldn't prefer you over him, That's why he changed into a panther and bit you every day."

There was a long pause during which, Victoriana shut the TV off and took a seat in an arm chair with her plate.

"I can just see Andy Bellefleur's face. "Jason said in a subdued kind of way. "He still can't get over me being innocent of murdering all those girls last year. He'd love to get me committed as being delusional. Catfish would have to fire me, and I don't think I'd like it at the mental hospital."

"Well, your dating options would sure be limited."

"Crystal, God, that girl! You warned me. But I was just so bowled over by her. And she turns out to be a ...you know."

"Oh, for goodness sake, Jason, she's a shape-shifter. Don't go on like she;'s the creature from the black lagoon, or Freddy Krueger, or something."

"Sook, you know a lot of stuff we don't know, don't you? I'm getting that picture."

"Yes, I guess so."

"Besides vampires."

"Right."

"There's lots else."

"I tried to tell you."

Jason was quiet a moment as he looked down into his almost drain mug of coffee. When he looked up it wasn't at me but at Victoriana. "What about you?"

"I'm not a shape-shifter." Her answers were very blunt and usually didn't answer anything. She opened her mouth to continue but I held my hand up to stop her.

"She's something else entirely." I said. "Don't worry about it for now. We need to figure out what to say to the police."

For at least an hour we went over and over our stories. Trying to find threads of truth to help us stitch together a fabrication. Where as last night, I had worried about Victoriana's ability to lie at the drop of a hat, today I was thankful for it.

Finally, I called the police station. The day-shift dispatcher was tired of hearing my voice, but she was still trying to be nice. "Sookie, like I told you yesterday, hon, we'll call you when we find out something about Jason." She said, trying to suppress the note of exasperation beneath her soothing tone.

"I've got him." I said.

"You WHAT?" The shriek came over loud and clear. Even Jason winced.

"I've got him."

"I'll send someone right over."

"Good." I said though I didn't mean it.

I had the foresight to get the nails out of the front door before the police got there. I didn't want them asking what had happened to it. Jason had looked at me oddly then I got out the hammer, but he didn't say a word.

"Who's she?" Andy Bellefleur asked first thing, nodding toward Victoriana in the living room.

"Victoriana Creed, she's a friend from out of town."

"What's she doing here."

"Visiting."

"Why?"

I could have smacked Andy. "That's not really any of your business." His already perpetual frown deepened. Alcee Beck was coming up the front steps. He and Andy came into the house together and at the sight of Jason wrapped up on my couch they both stopped dead in their tracks. I knew that they never really expected to see Jason alive again.

"Glad to see you safe and sound man." Andy said and shook Jason's hand. Alcee Beck followed on his heels. They sat down, Andy in Gran's recliner and Alcee in the armchair on the love seat and I perched on the couch beside Jason's feet while Victoriana remained in the armchair. "We're glad you're in the land of the living, Jason, but we need to know where you've been and what happened to you."

Jason took a deep breath and removed the blanket and lifted his shirt to show the bite marks all along his torso. Andy sucked in a breath and sat back. "This panther got me." He launched into the tale we had come up with about how he had gone to investigate a noise down by his dock and how the panther attacked and drug him off. It helped that he had the wounds to back it up.

"And that's when you two found him passed out on the side of the road?" Andy asked.

"Victoriana's the one who spotted him." I nodded to her.

Andy jotted that down in his notebook. While both detectives believed the story, they also thought there was something we were all holding back which made them automatically suspicious of Victoriana. Alcee Beck thought that anyone who associated with me was guilty of something and he would find out what. They left shortly after gathering our statements.

"I think after a shower I ought to run you home, big brother."

Jason looked scared for a minute. Being alone had never been his favorite thing, and after hours by himself in the cold of the shed, it might be even harder.

"I bet girls all over Bon Temps are making food to bring to your place now that they heard your back." I said, and Jason brightened perceptibly. "'Specially since Andy's probably telling everyone about that panther that got you."

"Thanks Sook." Jason said, putting his arm around me and pulling me into a hug.

I took Jason home, though he hinted broadly he'd like to stay with me one more night. I took the Benelli with us, and I told him to clean it that evening. He promised he would, and when he looked at me, I could tell he wanted to ask me again why I'd had to use it. But he didn't. Jason had learned some things in the past few days, himself.

I was working the late shift again, so I would have a little time on my hands when I got home before I had to go in to work. The prospect felt good. I didn't see any running men on my way back to my house, and no one phoned or popped in with a crisis for a whole two hours. I was able to change the sheets on both beds, wash them, and sweep the kitchen and straighten up the closet concealing the hidey-hole, before the knock came at the front door.

I knew who it would be. It was full dark outside, and sure enough, Eric stood on my front porch.

He looked down at me with not a very happy face. "Where's the woman?" he asked without preamble.

"Why?" I asked, going instantly on the offensive. Call me crazy (everyone else does) but I felt defensive of Victoriana.

He cocked an eyebrow. "I'll be polite and ask if I can come in." I hadn't rescinded his invitation, but he didn't want to just stroll into my house. Tactful.

"Yes, you can." I stepped back.

"Hallow is dead. I don't know what that woman did to her, but by the time we rose she had slit her wrists on a nail." He said as though he were commenting on the weather. "We would have killed her tonight anyway."

I tried not to think too much about Hallow or her fate. I had enough on my plate at the moment.

"Now, where is she?"

"Victoriana." I corrected, not that he seemed to care one way or the other. "She said she didn't like to be indoors for too long so she's outside walking around my property."

Eric hummed but made no further comment. I stood there a moment wondering just what his purpose was here if he didn't have anything further to say. I realized he was waiting for me to ask, a classic Eric tactic so that he didn't tell me anything important that he thought I didn't need to know. "Alcide said you were going to talk to the Queen about Victoriana,"

"Yes. I spoke to her lieutenant who will relay my inquiry to the Queen. I expect to hear back from her majesty by the end of the night." He said all this as though he had asked to borrow a cup of sugar from the Queen and not how to get back a misplaced dimensional traveler.

"Do you think she'll know what to do?" I knew I shouldn't have said anything in the car that night. Now, not only had I gotten Victoriana's hopes up but my own as well. I would surely miss her if she were sent back to that awful place.

"Queen Sophie-Anne is older than myself, if she's never heard of something like this than she has the resources to find someone who has." He said. "What happened to your door. It looks as if someone clawed their way through." What he meant was, had I locked Victoriana out in fear and had she broken through in an attempt to kill me. How he thought I could best her in a fight was beyond me.

"Someone broke into my house the other night and when Victoriana and I pulled up we scared them off." I wasn't much of a liar, I was more the type to avoid whole truths. But damn, Victoriana had a lie made up for anything and everything. They were simple lies, ones that were easy to remember with enough truth in them so that you didn't want to dispute the claim.

Eric hummed again and turned to look down my driveway as a pair of headlights made their way to the house.

About a fourth of a mile behind the historical Stackhouse home was a clearing in which nothing more than knee length grass seemed to grow. Not even the trees that surrounded the perimeter with their long branches hung over the area. In the center of the clearing was a shimmering membrane of sorts that stood at seven feet from the ground and about the width of a door. It almost resembled a heat haze if it weren't for the iridescent glimmer that made it seem as though it were a gossamer curtain.

Truly, this phenomenon couldn't be natural.

Even more peculiar still, was the smell that permeated the clearing and the woods surrounding. The scent was hard to place and, maybe, depended on the person who caught a whiff of it. But one thing was certain among all who had pleasured in the fragrance, it was an aroma of desires. Though no one would describe it as such because how could they know that what they smelt was different from the man next to him?

It wasn't often someone ventured into the strange spot, in fact, only those who knew of its existence had ever been in the clearing. However, today was different. Today a being who had never known such a thing could exist had followed the scent and happened upon the oddity. It was such a curious sight that the individual approached the shimmering haze. As if in a trance, she lifted her hand and reached forward to brush the membrane with her finger tips. There was no soft sensation of touch though, instead, her finger slipped right though and disappeared from sight completely. She wriggled her fingers about but only felt a vague sense of warmth.

Extracting her hand she tilted her head to the side and bit her bottom lip as excitement welled up inside of her. An adventure lay beyond the membrane, something new and exciting. She reached her hand out further and slipped it through the haze, wondering what was waiting for her on the other side. Her body leaned forward in preparation to breach the new plane entirely-

"Victoriana!"

She paused and turned her head in the direction of the distant shout. The hand no longer visible clenched into a fist as she weighed the pro's and con's.

"Victoriana!"

Slowly, she pulled back from the entrance (because what else could it be?). It would be here next time she came. With one last glance, she turned and followed the sound of the voice.

Eric and Amanda heard her before I did (not that I ever did, she was as silent as a cat), but I could feel her warmth coming before even that. She walked around the house and up to stand on the porch with me and my two guests. Both vampire and werewolf leaned in and closed their eyes, in what I had come to associate with scenting.

"Find anything interesting." I asked. I hadn't walked around the property for years it seemed like. A troll could have built a bridge over the little stream and started taking tolls for all I knew.

"Yes." She didn't elaborate, but then, she never did unless asked.

Amanda raised her eyebrows and glanced at me. I could only shake my head. Gran would have called these odd personality features 'peculiarities', and would have firmly told me out of ear shot to just smile and nod. "Anyway," Amanda said, turning back to Victoriana. "Pack Master is having Claudine meet us at Hair of the Dog tomorrow night. You need to be there. Eleven, don't be late."

Hair of the Dog was a werewolf bar in Shreveport. No humans allowed. But then, Victoriana wasn't really human. I wondered If I'd be allowed, I was a human with extras.

Victoriana turned to me without answering one way or the other. I turned to Amanda who in turn ignored Eric who turned to look between myself and Victoriana with amusement. There were enough turns going around I'm surprised we weren't all running in circles. Amanda nodded to the silent question if I could attend the meeting, too.

Even though Victoriana was older than me by at least ten years, I felt like the older and responsible party. It didn't help one bit that she looked a couple years my junior. I had a feeling my alternate dimensional twin had been her only role model and had died when Victoriana was too young.

Well, I had always thought about children (not in recent years), this could be a test run of sorts. I would have to prepare her for the world. Teach her the basics of fitting into society when you were different, how to make smart decisions, work hard, not kill people and most importantly; get a job (there were some major repairs piling up and I'm not running a halfway house for misplaced assassins).

"Well, I need to get to work." I said. "Do you want to come with me again tonight?"

"No. I've been watching the History Channel in an effort to familiarize myself with this dimensions history."

"Is your world's history different from ours?" She had said before that the two dimensions were very similar and she had alluded to a couple countries that existed here, so how different could it be.

"Among other events, your political figures are different, for example; the United States of my dimension had far more presidents."

"Why's that?" Amanda asked.

"Assassinations. We had been in constant wars for the last three hundred years, so political leaders were always dying prematurely."

And on that note, I needed to get dressed for work. Amanda and Eric left with good byes and by the time I was leaving, Victoriana was seated on the floor in front of the television. Her head tilted curiously at the screen and her legs folded underneath her. If I had sat like that, my legs would have been numb and the EMT's would have had to help me get up.

I told my guest I'd be back after midnight and slipped through the back door. Thankfully, the snow had melted during the day leaving everything wet. If the snow had still been clinging to the road, I might have insisted that Victoriana come along, simply to drive. Good old southern girls like me weren't used to driving in the snow.

A/N

So I didn't get much of a response with the last chapter and now I'm feeling very vulnerable. Maybe I should give a quick preview of things I plan to change? Let me know.


	5. Chapter 5

Hair of the Dog was a supe only kind of bar and if any humans managed to get past the stay-away magic surrounding the place, they would have walked into a dimly lit bar that looked as if it were home to a dangerous motorcycle gang. As it was, the bar was home to even more dangerous werewolves. When Victoriana and I arrived, the bar was nearly empty. I assumed they had closed the place down for this meeting, it certainly would have been made more difficult by a bunch of supernatural gawkers.

The red-headed Were, Amanda was standing by the door when we entered. She offered me a friendly smile and Victoriana a glance but nothing more. Acting as our escort she lead us over to a corner where most everyone (around ten or so), was congregating. Claudine was of course the center of attention. I attributed it to her Fairy status, which I had only recently learned about. I saw Alcide, Colonel Flood and even Maria-Star, who was sitting stiffly in a chair off to the side. I was glad to see she was out of the Hospital and doing better.

"Sookie!" Claudine exclaimed, and moved like Moses through the red sea of werewolves to get to me and pull me into a hug. She was very touchy feely and had recently saved my life. "Its good to see you!"

I patted her back gently and pulled back. "Its good to see you too Claudine." Her smile was dazzling, like a toothpaste commercial.

"And you must be the one I've heard so much about." Claudine had turned to Victoriana with the same smile and opened her mouth to say something else, but what I don't know. She paused with a surprised look on her face and leaned in. "Oh." She said, and a pleased smile spread across her lips as she inhaled and closed her eyes. "You smell wonderful." I drew my eyebrows together and looked to Victoriana who was watching Claudine curiously.

"Let's get this on the road, ladies." Colonel Flood barked. He stood on the opposite end of a long table with a couple of other Were's behind him, Alcide and Amanda among them.

"Of course!" Claudine hooked one arm around each of ours and pulled us forward to stand on our side of the table. "Now, Victoriana, you'll need to lay down on the table."

I wondered what kind of fairy magic Claudine would perform to determine how to send Victoriana back to her own dimension. I knew Victoriana didn't want to go back, but we needed to find out if she could go back in case she did want to leave this world eventually. I didn't really want to think about anyone's reaction when she revealed her desire to stay and I especially didn't want to think about anyone's reaction to letting her stay in my house.

Victoriana climbed onto the table as instructed and lay down. Claudine splayed both her hands to hover over her torso and closed her eyes. She was mumbling something in a language I didn't recognize. A moment later and I had to blink my eyes a few times before I actually believed that her hands were glowing a soft white light. I could feel the Were's around us crowd into watch the spectacle. At least Claudine's magic didn't smell like human magic. In fact, there was the vague scent of spring in the air. Everyone was silent, almost in reverence.

After another ten minutes, Claudine finished up and opened her eyes with a frown on her face. "I can't find your dimension frequency." She looked thoroughly put out. 

Some of the Were's murmured to each other around us and Victoriana sat up and dangled her legs off our side of the table. I had no idea what a dimension frequency was and I had the feeling no else really knew either. "What is that?" Because, someone had to ask.

"There are an infinite number of dimensions and they are all connected to each other. There are five dimensions connected to this one. Most of you know of Feary and Britlin. Out of the other three, two are dead and the last is so new that life hasn't formed yet. Out of those dimensions, other different dimensions are connected and so on and so on. Every living being in these worlds has a specific frequency that connects them to their home dimension. We Fea have the ability to detect the frequencies and search out the corresponding dimension." Claudine explained and I'm proud to say I followed along pretty well to her train of thought.

"The fact I can't sense your dimension, means Hallow and her coven reached very far to yank you out of your world." Claudine's frown deepened. "I think, _he_, might be able to find her dimension."

"He?" I asked when no one explained.

Claudine waved her hand in a dismissive manner. "An older fairy."

I frowned. I had been around supes long enough to know when someone was diverting my attention. Everyone else but Victoriana and I seemed to know who this he was, so why not tell us. I'd be sure to keep an ear out for this mysterious older fairy.

"It'll take time to consult with him." Claudine said, the frown still marring her beautiful name. "Tell me of your world."

"Such as?"

I thought of the five races she had told me about the other night. I wondered what else there was in her dimension.

"How old is your world? What is your sun and moon like? The constellations?"

"I believe my world is close to the same age as this world, the dimensions are very similar in terms of geography, countries and governments. But, the technology here is," She struggled for a term with her brows drawn together. "basic in comparison."

"Is there anything else?" Claudine prodded. She seemed to know that Victoriana was holding back and If she hadn't already shown me the state of her world, I never would have guessed anything to be amiss.

"Yes." I bet she could rake it in at poker with such a blank face.

Claudine gave her a gentle smile and placed a hand on Victoriana's arm as encouragement. Victoriana was silent a moment longer before speaking. "My world is dying. First came the floods, then droughts. The land is barren and few still walk the earth. Those that do have gone mad from the wars." Contrary to her words, her voice showed no weakness as one might have expected. I knew from talking to her about the state of her world that it was something she had come to terms with long ago.

Claudine looked stricken but Victoriana held unblinking eye contact. A few of the others around us, shuffled uneasily. They were realizing that the one they wanted to be rid of so badly had nothing to go back to. In a way, I suppose it was a blessing that Hallow managed to bring Victoriana out of that hell.

"If your dimension was so smart and had such amazing technology, how come you couldn't keep your planet from dying?" It was the same skinny teenage from the other night who had questioned if Victoriana was a shifter of some sort.

"Jannalynn!" Amanda snarled. The teen, Jannalynn, shut her mouth, but didn't wipe the sneer from her face.

"Eon's of war. Our hate for each other destroyed everything." Her words were heavy, but it seemed to me that she was answering without giving too much away. "This world has hope and peace, if only for small moments at a time."

Unease rolled around the room but I couldn't help but remember her act at Merlotte's, was this another act in an effort to keep from going back to her dimension? I'd make a point of talking to her about my suspicions later, there was no need to put her on the spot right now.

Colonel Flood broke the silence with a gruff throat clearing. "Well, we can't very well send you back to such a fate." He glanced at me and I understood he was asking me if she was being truthful. I nodded somberly. She had shown me those awful places when I looked into her mind. "We surely would have lost some of our own or would have been wounded in our fight with Hallow and her coven. And for that we owe you our thanks."

Some of the pack were growing tense, especially the sneering teen. She looked like she would start snarling any moment. Something important was going to happen.

"I name you, Sookie Stackhouse, and you, Victoriana Creed, Friends of the Pack. From this day forward you two ladies are under the protection of the Long Tooth Pack of Shreveport."

Claudine clapped enthusiastically and there was a general murmur of agreement from the group. Victoriana was still staring at Claudine without showing a flicker of what was going on inside her head. I tried to smile, but I couldn't help but wonder what kind of responsibilities a friend of the pack had. Did I need to provide refreshments on the full moon? Give sick werewolves a ride to the doctor when they needed one? Would I get a friendship bracelet? Actually, I wouldn't mind that last one so much.

Alcide had come around to pull me off to the side. I looked back to Victoriana to see that Claudine was now sitting next to her on the table. She had looped her long arm around Victoriana's back and pulled her close. A group of three men were watching them with rapid attention, like when you dangle the end of a string in front of a cat. I had to throw my shields up to block out their scandalous thoughts.

'"Sookie."

"Hmm?" I turned my attention to Alcide.

His lips pressed into a thin line but he didn't comment on my rudeness. "Look, I'm glade the Colonel named you a friend of the pack, but," He paused and scratched the back of his head in an aggravated manner.

"But, you still don't want Victoriana to stay with me?" I finished the sentence for him. He was projecting so loudly tonight, that I could probably have the whole conversation without him uttering a single word.

We both glanced over to Victoriana who was now talking with Colonel Flood. Claudine was still clinging to her. Maybe fairies were like vampires in that when they found someone they thought smelt nice, they tended to hoover around them. Victoriana would occasionally look toward Claudine but from what I can tell didn't seem to think anything of the contact.

"Look, she hasn't shown any signs of aggression toward me or anyone since she attacked the coven." I took a deep breath because I was getting tired. The last few days were catching up with me. "I think she's just lonely and needs a purpose."

"She's dangerous, Sookie." Alcide placed one of his huge hands on my shoulder as if to pass his worries to me through contact.

I shrugged the hand off. "So are you. Everyone in this room is dangerous." It was completely true, everyone in this room except for me was more dangerous than the general population (humans). "I'm not asking you to trust her, but you should at least trust me. You, Eric and Bill are so high strung about her living with me."

He grunted. "It worries me. There are other people she could stay with, why does it have to be you?"

"Because, I'm the one who offered." I was getting tired of this argument. I'd heard it from Bill, I'd heard it from Eric and now I was hearing it from Alcide, for the second time in as many days. "My mind is made up." I looked over to see Claudine fluttering around Victoriana like a butterfly. "And Claudine seems to like her just fine."

Alcide gave a contemptuous snort. "That's just because she likes the way she smells."

I hadn't really noticed Victoriana had any kind of smell. Vampires all usually tended to smell kind of dry and ashy. Alcide smelled like musk. Claudine smelled like the summer mornings I used to spend with Gran when I was little. "What's she smell like?" I remembered last night when Eric and Amanda had both sniffed her.

He grunted as I changed the subject and looked annoyed. "If I had to pinpoint it, I'd say like the wind. It keeps changing, which would make it hard if not impossible to track her." Alcide leaned back out of his aggressive stance. "I heard about your brother."

I tensed for a moment before I answered. "Thank God, he's alright." It was all I could manage to say. I was still mad at Fulton, even though I know he was dead by now, and I was still mad at Crystal, because there was no way she hadn't known what was going on. If the opportunity ever presented itself, I'd smack her.

"He'll be alright if he turns in two weeks. The first time you turn, its not like anything else you'll ever experience." I appreciated his assurances, Lord knew I needed them.

I talked to Alcide for a few more minutes before Amanda walked over. Despite our first meeting, I was actually really starting to like her. She was a bit rough, but then, I guess you had to be when you were a female in a pack of werewolves. She grinned at me and waved. "So, your roommate just told me a little about herself."

Victoriana and Claudine were still talking with Colonel Flood but had moved to the bar. I dropped my shields to listen into the the pack master, the only one of the three I could read with some success. I had given Victoriana and Jason a basic overview of what I knew of the supernatural community. There had been a lot of holes in my knowledge and Victoriana had asked many, many questions. Extensive questions I had never thought about and didn't know the answer to. Colonel Flood and Claudine were answering the questions now. I felt a little bad for the head werewolf because some of those questions had been mighty personal.

"What about her?" And Alcide was back on his original track. I resisted a frown and ignored him.

"She can track scents, hear a pin drop in the next room and can heal faster than a vamp." Amanda almost looked proud. "She's one hell of an ally to have and with you, too, we won't have to worry about any other packs encroaching on our territory for a long while. Oh, wipe that look off your face."

I turned to see that Alcide was glowering at Amanda. I smacked his arm and he dropped the expression entirely. "Would you get over it already."

"I'm just trying to look out for you."

I was sick and tired of everyone looking out for me. I'm not an invalid and I'm perfectly capable of asking help when I need it. Granted, I did need it more often since Bill walked into Merlotte's that night, but that's not the point. The point was that I had survived this long and it wasn't all thanks to the three men who were committed to interfering in my life in an effort to keep me safe.

Hands on my hips I turned a glare on him that could blister paint. "That's not your decision." I snapped. "There's been no sign that she would hurt me or anyone else."

"She sure hurt Hallow and the other witches."

Amanda was looking between us like she was watching a tennis match and she was smirking. It was not helping.

"Out of self-preservation."

Alcide opened his mouth to argue but stopped before he said anything. He took a step back and held his hands up as a sign of peace. "I'm not going to argue with you. Just know, that I'll be keeping an eye on y'all."

He left after that, not just from me but from the bar. I looked to Amanda who was giving me the biggest smile I'd ever seen from her. She slung an arm around my shoulders and pulled me close and began tugging me toward the bar. "You know, you're not so bad for a human."

"I'm human with extras."

Amanda had a laugh that was more like a bark.

"Its a male thing. They always want to protect you. You just keep doing what you're doing." She pulled me closer and leaned into my ear. "But really, if you need any help, don't hesitate to give someone a call. You're a friend of the pack, which means we'll lay down our lives for you."

"Oh, I thought that meant I would hand out refreshments on the full moon." It was one thing to think it, it was another thing to say it out loud.

Amanda just grinned and pushed me into the seat by Claudine before going behind the bar. "Alright, what can I get y'all?"

"Lite beer for me, Amanda." _'I really shouldn't have one at all with my doctor's visit tomorrow.'_

"Beer."

"Something fruity and fun I think. Surprise me."

"Uh, gin and tonic?" I wasn't a big drinker and I didn't think I'd ever be. Amanda smiled and started moving around behind the bar. "So you work here?"

She placed my beverage in front of me. "You could say that, I own Hair of the Dog."

"Oh." I looked around. It was clean and seemed to be doing well. "It's a nice place."

"Thanks."

Claudine leaned over and slipped her arm around my waist to pull me into a one-armed hug. "How are you doing tonight, Sookie?"

I took a big sip of my drink and forced a smile. Everything had turned out as I'd hoped for the most part. Victoriana wouldn't be sent back to that awful place and she had been accepted for the most part. Well, some were making the effort to prepare her for this world, others were making an effort to let her know she would be on their list should anything happen. I had found Bill hiding in my woods last night on my way home from work. After a short talk with him, it seemed Eric had tasked him with watching my home until Victoriana could be deemed trustworthy. It wasn't as though he needed any encouragement, I suspect he'd have been out there regardless.

"I'm doing good." And that was the truth, with Jason home and safe a huge weight had been lifted from my chest.

"You know, you should come to Hooligans in Monroe to see my brother strip." I choked on my drink, and Claudine patted my back gently.

I didn't know where to begin with that. "You have a brother?" I asked once I was able to breath properly.

"And a sister too, we're triplets."

"That must be nice." And I meant it, wishing I had another sibling back in Bon Temps. I was running low on family with only Jason and my cousin Hadley who had run off years ago. "So you work at the mall, your brother is a- works at Hooligans, what does your sister do?"

"She's an exotic dancer too, at the same club." Claudine took a sip from her drink, a pink concoction with ice. "Ladies night is Thursday, you should bring some of your friends and come down to watch him."

"I'll think about it." I said not meaning a word of it. Never once, had I ever thought of paying money to go see men dance around in tight, glittery, underthings and I certainly wouldn't start now. I did wonder, however, if the other two-thirds of the triplets were just as lovely as Claudine. Probably. Sam had said that it was a fairy trait.

"Victoriana, I have the early shift tomorrow so let's head back." I said and laid some money on the bar next to my half empty drink.

Claudine gave me a hug and I waved to Amanda and Maria-Star (who was sitting with another woman I didn't recognize). I turned to Victoriana so that we could leave together when I saw that Claudine was hugging her as well, the only difference between the hug she had given me and the one she was in the middle of was that she hadn't been rubbing herself on me. It kind of reminded me of the way a cat would roll around in catnip, so as to cover itself in the smell it loved so much. Colonel Flood looked a cross between uncomfortable and shame and I didn't need to be a mind reader to know why. For her part, Victoriana looked confused and was looking to me for some sort of explanation. The only thing I could do was shrug.

After a few more awkward moments of rubbing, Claudine finally let Victoriana go with a kiss on the cheek. There were a few wolf whistles from this and I ushered the two of us out of there before any of the crude thoughts floating around were voiced.

A/N

I love all your reviews! They really boost my self confidence in writing. Anyway, I'm writing chapter ten right now so I can stay ahead.


	6. Chapter 6

It had been three weeks since Eric had been returned to normal, three weeks since Victoriana had been summoned to this dimension and come to live with me, two weeks since it had been decided she would stay here, one week since she had found a job working for Trey Dawson (owner and operator of a local motorcycle repair shop and werewolf) as a secretary,three days since I had figured out that the owner of a strip club that Claudine's siblings worked at had murdered their sister Claudette, and one day since the first full moon, where Jason and all the other two-natured had shifted into their animal forms to run wild in the woods.

It had been a busy for me the last few weeks and I was glad that things were finally settling down. That wasn't to say that Merlotte's wasn't busy from the moment I parked in the employees parking lot at the beginning of my shift. I stuffed my purse in the designated drawer in Sam's desk and hustled myself out into the bar. I made small talk with Sam and Sweetie Des Arts (the new cook) and was just getting into the swing of things when Victoriana walked in and took a seat at the bar.

Now that there was food to eat, she wasn't so skinny. She had filled out in a way that many of the men around town appreciated. In fact, I was often privy to their fantasies that featured Victoriana and myself. It was embarrassing really that most of the town thought we were lovers. I had mentioned it to my housemate and she had informed me that she strictly preferred men. She was about as modest as most supes were, which is to say not at all and I was thankful when I learned that there was zero chance of her interest in me.

Neil Jones (1) was a Bon Temps kid born and bred. He had gone to school with me a year behind and had then gone on to study architecture at LSU. He thought this made him better than a majority of the town but I knew for a fact that he was failing his courses and would soon be flunking out of school. Currently, he was home visiting his parents. As soon as Victoriana sat down he had left his group of High School buddies and slithered over to the seat next to hers. In high school he used to peek up the skirts of girls who sat on the bleachers and thought some very inappropriate thoughts about one of the school cafeteria ladies, Ms. Gretwall and his neighbors dog. Judging by his thoughts, not much had changed. I didn't think Victoriana would appreciate those thoughts one bit, not that any woman would.

I had planed to keep an eye on him and his flirtations. It had become apparent over the last few weeks that Victoriana had a fairly cool temperament, but I didn't want to chance an incident. That plan was put on old when a patron shouted his order from across the bar.

"Barmaid! Bring me a Red Stuff!" The voice was unfamiliar, and the order was unusual. Red Stuff was the cheapest artificial blood, and only the newest vampires would be caught dead asking for it. I got a bottle from the clear-fronted refrigerator and stuck it in the microwave. While it warmed, I scanned the crowd for the vamp. He was sitting with my friend Tara Thornton. I'd never seen him

before, which was worrisome. Tara'd been dating an older vampire (much older: Franklin Mott had been older than Tara in human years before he died, and he 'd been a vampire for over three hundred years), and he'd been giving her lavish gifts like a Camaro. What was she doing with this new guy? At least Franklin had nice manners.

I put the warm bottle on a tray and carried it over to the couple. The lighting in Merlotte's at night isn't particularly bright, which is how patrons like it, and it wasn't until I'd gotten quite near that I could appreciate Tara's companion. He was slim and narrow shouldered with slicked-back hair. He had long fingernails and a sharp face. I supposed that, in a way, he was attractive if you like a liberal dose of danger with your sex.

I put the bottle down in front of him and glanced uncertainly at Tara. She looked great, as usual. Tara is tall, slim, and dark haired, and she has a wardrobe of wonderful clothes. She'd overcome a truly horrible childhood to own her own business and actually join the chamber of commerce. Then she started dating the wealthy vampire, Franklin Mott, and she quit sharing her life with me.

"Sookie," she said, "I want you to meet Franklin's friend Mickey." She didn't sound like she wanted us to meet. She sounded like she wished I'd never come over with Mickey 's drink. Her own glass was almost empty, but she said, "No," when I asked her if she was ready for another.

I exchanged a nod with the vampire; they don't shake hands, not normally. He was watching me as he took a gulp from the bottled blood, his eyes as cold and hostile as a snake's. If he was a friend of the ultra-urban Franklin, I was a silk purse. Hired hand, more like. Maybe a bodyguard? Why would Franklin give Tara a bodyguard?

She obviously wasn't going to talk openly in front of this slimeball, so I said, "Catch you later," and took Mickey 's money to the till.

I looked up at the sound of shouting to see that Terry Bellefleur had pinned Neil's head to the bar and was hollering at the top of his lungs. Other people were starting to stand up and get a look at the commotion I pushed my way around to Terry's side of the bar and tried to calm him down. No little task, it wasn't until Victoriana grabbed the back of Neil's LSU sweatshirt and yanked him out from under Terry's hand that the Vietnam Vet started to listen to me.

"Terry," I said as calmly as I could and tried to usher him to Sam's office. "Let's go to the back so you can get some air."

Victoriana had rushed around to this side of the bar and had grabbed Terry's hands. He made eye contact with her and didn't look away. I could still hear the frantic thoughts racing around his head but they seemed more subdued. Together we moved him out of the chaos and into the quiet of Sam's office.

It was only once I closed the door to block out the noise from the bar that I realized that she was talking to him. Her voice was low and soothing. "That's right," She smiled slowly at Terry and he followed suit. "It's quiet here."

I patted his back gently and glanced to the door. It was still pretty loud out there and I could hear Arlene ripping Neil a new one. Terry was taking deep breaths and holding Victoriana's hands. "What happened?" I asked quietly.

"That Jones boy said something real nasty to your friend here." Terry said as he finally released Victoriana's hands and ran one of his own hands through his hair. "I couldn't let him say things like that."

"That was very kind of you." Victoriana said with a friendly smile.

Terry blushed and looked away. "Aw, well," he shuffled his feet along the floor. "You're a friend of Sookie's and she's always been real nice to me."

I leaned up and pecked Terry on the cheek. "You're the sweetest man I know." And that was the God's honest truth.

There was some more blushing and shuffling before the three of us returned to the bar. Thankfully, Arlene and Holly had restored order and everyone was sitting at their tables once again. I was pleased to note Neil and his friends had left without leaving a tip. Terry took his place behind the bar and Victoriana sat in her seat, both content to chat with each other. I figured they had more in common than most people and for that I was glad. It was harder to tell with Victoriana, but I could see she was damaged from war just like Terry.

Once I was back in the swing of things Shirley Hunter, my brother's boss at his parish roadwork job, asked me where Jason was when I brought a pitcher of beer to his table. Shirley was universally known as 'Catfish'.

"Your guess is as good as mine," I said mendaciously, and he winked at me. The first guess as to where Jason was always involved a woman, and the second guess usually included another woman.

The table full of men, still in their working clothes, laughed more than the answer warranted, but then they'd had a lot of beer. I raced back to the bar to get three bourbon-and-Cokes from Terry Bellefleur, Portia's cousin, who was working under pressure. Terry, a Vietnam vet with a lot of physical and emotional scars, appeared to be holding up well on this busy night with one incident already under his belt. He liked simple jobs that required concentration. His graying auburn hair was pulled back in a ponytail and his face was intent as he plied the bottles. The drinks were ready in no time, and Terry smiled at me as I put them on my tray. A smile from Terry was a rare thing, and it warmed me.

Just as I was turning with my tray resting on my right hand, trouble erupted. A Louisiana Tech student from Ruston got into a one-on-one class war with Jeff LaBeff, a redneck who had many children and made a kind of living driving a garbage truck. Maybe it was just a case of two stubborn guys colliding and really didn't have much to do with town vs. gown (not that we were that close to Ruston). Or maybe the full moon effected regular humans just as much as shifters and Were's.

Whatever the reason for the original quarrel, it took me a few seconds to realize the fight was going to be more than a shouting match. In those few seconds, Terry tried to intervene. Moving quickly, he got between Jeff and the student and caught firm hold of both their wrists. I thought for a minute it would work, but Terry wasn't as young or as active as he had been, and all hell broke loose.

"You could stop this," I said furiously to Mickey as I hurried past his and Tara's table on my way to try to make peace.

He sat back in his chair and sipped his drink. "Not my job," he said calmly.

I got that, but it didn't endear the vampire to me, especially when the student whirled and took a swing at me as I approached him from behind. He missed, and I hit him over the head with my tray. He staggered to one side, maybe bleeding a little, and Terry was able to subdue Jeff LaBeff, who was looking for an excuse to quit.

Incidents like this had been happening with more frequency, especially when Sam was gone. It was evident to me that we needed a bouncer, at least on weekend nights … and full-moon nights.

The student threatened to sue.

"What 's your name?" I asked.

"Mark Duffy," the young man said, clutching his head.

"Mark, where you from?"

"Minden."

I did a quick evaluation of his clothes, his demeanor, and the contents of his head. "I'm gonna enjoy calling your mama and telling her you took a swing at a woman," I said. He blanched and said no more about suing, and he and his buds left soon after. It always helps to know the most effective threat.

We made Jeff leave, too.

Terry resumed his place behind the bar and began dispensing drinks, but he was limping slightly and had a strained look in his face, which worried me. Terry's war experiences hadn't left him real stable. Victoriana bid us a good night and blew a kiss to Terry, she could be real flirty when she got in the mood (which wasn't often), and left. Which was just as well, I'd had enough trouble for one night. But of course the night wasn't over yet.

About an hour after the fight, a woman came into Merlotte's. She was plain and plainly dressed in old jeans and a camo coat. She had on boots that had been wonderful when they 'd been new, but that had been a long time ago. She didn't carry a purse, and she had her hands thrust into her pockets. There were several indicators that made my mental antennae twitch. First of all, this gal didn't look right. A local woman might dress like that if she were going hunting or doing farm work, but not to come to Merlotte's. For an evening out at the bar, most women fixed themselves up. So this woman was in a working mode; but she wasn't a whore by the same reasoning.

That meant drugs.

To protect the bar in Sam's absence, I tuned in to her thoughts. People don't think in complete sentences, of course, and I'm smoothing it out, but what was running through her head was along the order of: Three vials left getting old losing power gotta sell it tonight so I can get back to Baton Rouge and buy some more. Vampire in the bar if he catches me with vamp blood I 'm dead. This town is a dump. Back to the city first chance I get.

She was a Drainer, or maybe she was just a distributor. Vampire blood was the most intoxicating drug on the market, but of course vamps didn't give it up willingly. Draining a vampire was a hazardous occupation, boosting prices of the tiny vials of blood to amazing sums.

What did the drug user get for parting with a lot of money? Depending on the age of the blood that is, the time since it'd been removed from its owner and the age of the vampire from whom the blood had been removed, and the individual chemistry of the drug user, it could be quite a lot. There was the feeling of omnipotence, the increased strength, acute vision, and hearing. And most important of all for Americans, an enhanced physical appearance.

Still, only an idiot would drink black-market vampire blood. For one thing, the results were notoriously unpredictable. Not only did the effects vary, but those effects could last anywhere from two weeks to two months. For another thing, some people simply went mad when the blood hit their system sometimes homicidally mad. I'd heard of dealers who sold gullible users pig's blood or contaminated human blood. But the most important reason to avoid the black market in vamp blood was this: Vampires hated Drainers, and they hated the users of the drained blood (commonly known as bloodheads). You just don't want a vampire pissed off at you.

There weren't any off-duty police officers in Merlotte's that night. Sam was out wagging his tail somewhere. I hated to tip off Terry, because I didn't know how he'd react. I had to do something about this woman.

Truly, I try not to intervene in events when my only connection comes through my telepathy. If I stuck my oar in every time I learned something that would affect the lives around me (like knowing the parish clerk was embezzling, or that one of the local detectives took bribes), I wouldn't be able to live in Bon Temps, and it was my home. But I couldn't permit this scraggy woman to sell her poison in Sam's bar.

She perched on an empty bar stool and ordered a beer from Terry. His gaze lingered on her. Terry, too, realized something was wrong about the stranger. I came to pick up my next order and stood by her. She needed a bath, and she'd been in a house heated by a wood fireplace. I made myself touch her, which always improved my reception. Where was the blood? It was in her coat pocket.

Good.

Without further ado, I dumped a glass of wine down her front.

"Dammit!" she said, jumping off the stool and patting ineffectually at her chest.

"You are the clumsiest-ass woman I ever saw!"

"'Scuse me," I said abjectly, putting my tray on the bar and meeting Terry 's eyes briefly. "Let me put some soda on that." Without waiting for her permission, I pulled her coat down her arms. By the time she understood what I was doing and began to struggle, I had taken charge of the coat. I tossed it over the bar to Terry. "Put some soda on that, please," I said. "Make sure the stuff in her pockets didn't get wet, too." I 'd used this ploy before. I was lucky it was cold weather and she 'd had the stuff in her coat, not in her jeans pocket. That would have taxed my inventiveness.

Under the coat, the woman was wearing a very old Dallas Cowboys T-shirt. She began shivering, and I wondered if she'd been sampling more conventional drugs. Terry made a show of patting soda on the wine stain. Following my hint, he delved into the pockets. He looked down at his hand with disgust, and I heard a clink as he threw the vials in the trash can behind the bar. He returned everything else to her pockets.

She'd opened her mouth to shriek at Terry when she realized she really couldn't. Terry stared directly at her, daring her to mention the blood. The people around us watched with interest. They knew something was up, but not what, because the whole thing had gone down very quickly. When Terry was sure she wasn't going to start yelling, he handed me the coat. As I held it so she could slide her arms in, Terry told her, "Don 't you come back here no more."

If we kept throwing people out at this rate, we wouldn't have many customers.

"You redneck son of a bitch," she said. The crowd around us drew in a collective breath. (Terry was almost as unpredictable as a bloodhead.)

"Doesn't matter to me what you call me," he said. "I guess an insult from you is no insult at all. You just stay away." I expelled a long breath of relief. I guess chatting with Victoriana earlier had calmed his nerves somewhat.

She shoved her way through the crowd. Everyone in the room marked her progress toward the door, even Mickey the vampire. In fact, he was doing something with a device in his hands. It looked like one of those cell phones that can take a picture. I wondered to whom he was sending it. I wondered if she'd make it home.

Terry pointedly didn't ask how I'd known the scruffy woman had something illegal in her pockets.

That was another weird thing about the people of Bon Temps. The rumors about me had been floating around as long as I could remember, from when I was little and my folks put me through the mental health battery. And yet, despite the evidence at their disposal, almost everyone I knew would much rather regard me as a dim and peculiar young woman than acknowledge my strange ability. Of course, I was careful not to stick it in their faces. And I kept my mouth shut.

Anyway, Terry had his own demons to fight. Terry subsisted on some kind of government pension, and he cleaned Merlotte's early in the morning, along with a couple of other businesses. He stood in for Sam three or four times a month. The rest of his time was his own, and no one seemed to know what he did with it. Dealing with people exhausted Terry, and nights like tonight were simply not good for him.

When I got home that night it was to find Victoriana scrubbing the hall floors by hand. I waved to her and went into the kitchen to find it sparkling. A plus side to Victoriana's previous occupation was that she knew how to scour dirt, grim and bodily fluids from any and every surface. I had also recently discovered that she didn't need as much sleep as humans, only about four hours. Because of these things, she was an excellent cleaner, this house had never been so clean before. She even took care of most of the chores in and around the house.

I made myself half a ham and cheese sandwich and ate it over the sink. All that extra stress tonight had made me hungry. Once I was done with that, I took my shoes off and set them on the back porch so as not to track in any dirt on the freshly scrubbed floors. With a yawn, I carefully tiptoed by Victoriana and went to bed. I would need the rest, because tomorrow night would be worse than tonight had been.

A/N

Thank you to those of you who reviewed. I always enjoy reading them, they give me motivation to continue writing for you. Only one of you have guessed where my OC originated from, I thought it'd be pretty easy.

Anyway, I've been reading other fanfics in the Sookie Stackhouse section and I found it swamped with Eric/Sookie! Don't get me wrong, I like the pairing, but it'd be nice to read something different. There are an appalling lack of Fae fics and any other character really. I long for a good fic with Sophie-Anne and Andre in it or some major crack pairings. Anyone have any suggestions where I can read something along those lines?


	7. Chapter 7

I was still in a foul mood by the time I stomped through the backdoor of my house. The combined stress of the last three days was getting to me. That first night with Neil Jones, that college boy from Louisiana Tech and Jeff, and the drainer who had vampire blood in her pocket, was bad enough. Especially with Terry working. Then I found out Calvin was shot in the chest (thankfully, he was still alive). Then Sam had been shot last night and now had a broken leg which made him unable to work. So like a good friend I had gone to Eric to beg him (on Sam's behalf) to spare us a Vampire bartender/bouncer. It was a humiliating experience that I wouldn't have done unless for a friend. That same friend then changed his mind after the deal was already made and wanted me to house the vampire and without a lick of thanks. Well, I was done and every car I had met on my way home had felt my ire.

I walked into the kitchen and was surprised to see Victoriana elbow deep in flour and dirty dishes. The kitchen had been so clean before I left (thanks in large part to Victoriana and her crime scene cleaning skills), and now it was a disaster area. I stood speechless for a moment. In all the years this house has stood, it had never been the sight to such a mess. Sure there was the occasional murder or the tracking in of mud. But never had there been batter dripping from the ceiling or dishes stacked high enough to block the window.

Victoriana stood in the middle of the kitchen with a bowl in hand full of some orange looking dough and covered in an assortment of foods. "I- I was trying to make you dinner." She sounded so uncertain of her actions which made her look younger. I wish I could look younger sometimes.

I pointedly looked around the kitchen again. "Have you ever cooked before?" I asked slowly.

Through the flour on her cheeks I could see a tint of pink staining her cheeks. "Birdy taught me how to make sweet potato rolls when I was a child." She held up the bowl of orange mixture in a timid fashion. This was so out of character for her, that I was beginning to wonder if I'd been spelled from another dimension. "And I've watched you cook before. I didn't think it would be that hard."

God bless her.

I found myself smiling. "You don't have to cook for me. I'm fine with doing the cooking."

She gave the batter in the bowl a couple of stirs. "You seemed so distressed today after Sam was shot, I thought it would be a nice gesture."

"Thank you, Victoriana." In the space of two minutes I had gone from spitting mad to feeling blessed to have such a friend who cared enough for me to try and make me dinner. "Let me help you and I can teach you a bit about cooking."

Her whole face lit up and I had a flash of my alternate-dimensional-self offering a cooking lesson. Because Victoriana's mind was usually shielded, I didn't have to keep my guard up while I was home, but every now and then I'd get a flash from her. It was never words, but sometimes it was pictures or memories in her mind or an emotion.

We spent the rest of the night cooking and cleaning. Victoriana might not be able to make anything but meat, but by God, those sweet potato rolls were sent straight from heaven. She had made two batches so I decided to take some tomorrow to Sam as a peace offering, just in case my job wasn't still waiting for me.

I went in early the next morning for my shift, unhappy to drive through the rain. At least I didn't have to run through it with my rain slicker. Thankfully, not many people came in with the bad weather. I spoke to my brother when he came in with his best friend Hoyt Fortenberry and we made plans to visit Calvin in the hospital later that night.

I was about halfway through my shift when I looked up and I saw a stranger waiting to be seated and hurried over to him. His dark hair, turned black by the rain, was pulled back in a ponytail. His face was scarred with one long thin white line that ran along one cheek. When he pulled off his jacket, I could see that he was a bodybuilder.

"Smoking or non?" I asked, with a menu already in my hand.

"Non," he said, and followed me to a table. He carefully hung his wet jacket on the back of a chair and took the menu after he was seated. "My wife will be along in a few minutes," he said. "She 's meeting me here."

I put another menu at the adjacent place. "Do you want to order now or wait for her?"

"I'd like some hot tea," he asked. "I 'll wait until she comes to order food. Kind of a limited menu here, huh?" He glanced over at Arlene and then back at me. I began to feel uneasy. I knew he wasn't here because this place was convenient for lunch.

"That 's all we can handle," I said, taking care to sound relaxed. "What we've got, it 's good."

When I assembled the hot water and a tea bag, I put a saucer with a couple of lemon slices on the tray, too. No fairies around to offend.

"Are you Sookie Stackhouse?" he asked when I returned with his tea.

"Yes, I am." I put the saucer gently on the table, right beside the cup. "Why do you want to know?" I already knew why, but with regular people, you had to ask.

"I 'm Jack Leeds, a private investigator," he said. He laid a business card on the table, turned so I could read it. He waited for a beat, as if he usually got a dramatic reaction to that statement. "I've been hired by a family in Jackson, Mississippi the Pelt family," he continued, when he saw I wasn't going to speak.

My heart sank to my shoes before it began pounding at an accelerated rate. This man believed that Debbie was dead. And he thought there was a good chance I might know something about it.

He was absolutely right.

Victoriana'd shot Debbie Pelt dead a few weeks before, in self-defense. Mostly. Hers was the body Victoriana had hidden. Hers was the bullet, meant for me, that had lodged in Victoriana's shoulder. Debbie's disappearance after leaving a 'party' in Shreveport, Louisiana (in fact a life-and death brawl between witches, vamps, and Weres), had been a nine days' wonder. I 'd hoped I'd heard the end of it.

"So the Pelts aren't satisfied with the police investigation?" I asked. It was a stupid question, one I picked out of the air at random. I had to say something to break up the gathering silence.

"There really wasn't an investigation," Jack Leeds said. "The police in Jackson decided she probably vanished voluntarily." He didn't believe that, though.

His face changed then; it was like someone had switched on a light behind his eyes. I turned to look where he was looking, and I saw a blond woman of medium height shaking her umbrella out at the door. She had short hair and pale skin, and when she turned, I saw that she was very pretty; at least, she would have been if she had been more animated.

But that wasn't a factor to Jack Leeds. He was looking at the woman he loved, and when she saw him, the same light switched on behind her eyes, too. She came across the floor to his table as smoothly as if she were dancing, and when she shed her own wet jacket, I saw her arms were as muscular as his.

They didn't kiss, but his hand slid over hers and squeezed just briefly. After she 'd taken her chair and asked for some diet Coke, her eyes went to the menu. She was thinking that all the food Merlotte 's offered was unhealthy. She was right.

"Salad?" Jack Leeds asked.

"I have to have something hot," she said. "Chili?"

"Okay. Two chilis," he told me. "Lily, this is Sookie Stackhouse. Ms. Stackhouse, this is Lily Bard Leeds."

"Hello," she said. "I've just been out to your house and I met your housemate." Her eyes were light blue, and she had a stare like a laser. "You saw Debbie Pelt the night she disappeared." Her mind added, You 're the one she hated so much.

They didn't know Debbie Pelt's true nature, and I was relieved that the Pelts hadn't been able to find a Were investigator. They wouldn't out their daughter to regular detectives. The longer the two-natured could keep the fact of their existence a secret, the better, as far as they were concerned.

"Yes," I said. "I saw her that night."

"Can we come talk to you and your housemate about that? After you get off work?"

"I have to go see a friend in the hospital after work," I said.

"Sick?" Jack Leeds asked.

"Shot," I said.

Their interest quickened. "By someone local?" the blond woman asked.

Then I saw how it might all work. "By a sniper," I said. "someone's been shooting people at random in this area."

"Have any of them vanished?" Jack Leeds asked.

"No," I admitted. "They've all been left lying. Of course, there were witnesses to all of the shootings. Maybe that 's why." I hadn't heard of anyone actually seeing Calvin get shot, but someone had come along right afterward and called 911.

Lily Leeds asked me if they could talk to me the next day before I went to work. I gave them directions to my house and told them to come at ten. I didn't think talking to them was a very good idea, but I didn't think I had much of a choice, either. I would become more of an object of suspicion if I refused to talk about Debbie.

When I got home after work I set about making myself a sandwich. Victoriana came into the kitchen a moment later and I made her a sandwich too. I told her about Lily and Jack Leeds visit to Merlotte's earlier as we sat down to eat.

"The wife came to snoop around the house at one-thirty."

My eyebrows rose at the implications. "So, they knew I was at work and were hoping to find something incriminating while I was out?"

"That's the conclusion I came to. I assume she thought the house was empty since there was no car in the driveway." She said. "If given the chance, I believe she would have tried to gain entry into the house. I made myself known when she went for the shed."

I doubt there was anything in there that could be incriminating. "What did she say?"

Victoriana polished off her sandwich and drank half her glass of water before answering. "She introduced herself as Lily Bard Leeds, a private investigator, hired by the Pelt family to look into the disappearance of their missing daughter, Debbie Pelt. She then went on to ask me if I had seen Debbie Pelt at the party that night." The story went, that I had picked Victoriana up in Shreveport that night before going to the party at Pam's. "I told her that I didn't know who Debbie Pelt was, but that you had told me that she was missing."

I nodded. "Did she say anything else?"

"She asked to use the restroom, I told her that there was a plumbing issue and that she would have better luck in town."

I had finished my own sandwich by now and was staring blankly down at the crumbs on my plate while the events of the last couple of weeks washed over me. "Wait a minute," I said as a thought struck me. "why were you home today, I thought your lunch break ended at twelve-forty?"

"It does, but Calvin Norris hired Trey to be his bodyguard during his stay in the hospital. Trey closed the shop for the day but wants me to go into clean tomorrow." Maybe Victoriana should start her own maid service or crime scene clean up. She'd make a killing.

The trip to visit Calvin in the hospital was uneventful but informative. I struggle after we had returned to the car on whether or not I should tell Jason that the were-panther's out in Hotshot thought he was the one responsible for shooting Calvin. Deciding that it was probably the best way to keep Jason from walking like a lamb to the slaughter, I relayed the conversation I'd had with Calvin.

He was horrified that his new buddies in the were-panther world could believe such a thing of him. "If I'd thought of that before I changed for the first time, I can't say it wouldn't have been tempting," Jason said as we drove back to Bon Temps through the rain. "I was mad. Not just mad, furious. But now that I've changed, I see it different." He went on and on while my thoughts ran around inside my head in a circle, trying to think of a way out of this mess.

The sniping case had to be solved by the next full moon. If it wasn't, the others might tear Jason up when they changed. Maybe he could just roam the woods around his house when he turned into his panther-man form, or maybe he could hunt the woods around my place but he wouldn't be safe out at Hotshot. And they might come looking for him. I couldn't defend him against them all.

By the next full moon, the shooter had to be in custody.

I was washing the few dishes from dinner when the phone rang. I shut off the faucet and dried my hands before answering.

"Hello," I said, not expecting anything good.

"Sookie, hi, it's Alcide."

I found myself smiling. Alcide Herveaux, who worked in his father 's surveying business in Shreveport, was one of my favorite people. He was a Were, he was both sexy and hardworking, and I liked him very much. He'd also been Debbie Pelt's fiance. But Alcide had abjured her before she vanished, in a rite that made her invisible and inaudible to him not literally, but in effect. He'd also made it clear that he didn't trust my housemate one bit which had put us on the outs. Despite that, I was still glad to hear from him.

"Sookie, I'm at Merlotte's. I'd thought you might be working tonight, so I drove over. Can I come to the house? I need to talk to you."

"You know you're in danger, coming to Bon Temps."

"No, why?"

"Because of the sniper." I could hear the bar sounds in the background. There was no mistaking Arlene's laugh. I was betting the new bartender was charming one and all.

"Why would I worry about that?" Alcide hadn't been thinking about the news too hard, I decided.

"All the people who got shot? They were two-natured," I said. "Now they're saying on the news there've been a lot more across the south. Random shootings in small towns. Bullets that match the one recovered from Heather Kinman here. And I'm betting all the other victims were shape-shifters, too."

There was a thoughtful silence on the end of the line, if silence can be

characterized.

"I hadn't realized," Alcide said. His deep, rumbly voice was even more deliberate than normal.

"Oh, and have you talked to the private detectives?"

"What? What are you talking about?"

"If they see us talking together, it'll look very suspicious to Debbie's family."

"Debbie 's family has hired private eyes to look for her?"

"That's what I'm saying."

"Listen, I'm coming to your house." He hung up the phone.

I sighed and went to wait out on the porch for Alcide to show up. While I waited I thought of the Leeds' and what type of questions they would ask. It seemed even in death, she was causing me an endless stream of troubles. I bowed my head in shame at my less than christian thoughts, Gran would have whipped me with a switch if she had heard my thoughts.

Victoriana came out a moment later to sit with me on the porch. When she wasn't working or cleaning, she was glued to the news channels and history channels. She had often commented to me about how fascinating this dimension was and would share with me, the differences. There was something that bothered me though. Sometimes, especially when she would talk about the early history of her world, it seemed like she was leaving out something big that had happened to shape her world. She had been pretty good about sharing with me so far which made me hesitant to ask what it was that made her pause in telling me. For now, I would give her time.

Alcide pulled up a couple of minutes later in his truck and parked in front of the house. I descended the porch steps and let him pull me into a hug. Alcide always hugged me each and every time we saw each other. He gave a grudging nod to Victoriana which she returned with a blank faced wave. Alarm bells started ringing in my head. While Eric tolerated her presence and Bill leaned toward intimidation, Alcide treated her with disdain. I had the uncanny feeling I was being buttered up.

We all went inside to sit in the living room. I shared the couch with Alcide while Victoriana sat on the arm chair, she seemed to prefer it when she wasn't sitting on the floor in front of the television. I occasionally wondered if I should worry about her eyesight being damaged from sitting too close to the screen. Maybe her accelerated healing took care of that or maybe she just didn't care.

"Tell me about the detectives." He said, and I described the couple and told them what they had said to me and what Victoriana had told me earlier.

"Debbie's family didn't say anything to me about it," Alcide said. He turned it over in his head for a minute. I could follow his thinking. "I think that means they 're

sure I made her vanish."

"Maybe not. Maybe they just think you're so grieved they don 't want to bring it up."

"Grieved." Alcide mulled that over for a minute. "No. I spent all the..." He paused, grappling for words. "I used up all the energy I had to spare for her," he said finally. "I was so blind, I almost think she used some kind of magic on me. Her mother's a spellcaster and half shifter. Her dad's a fullblooded shifter."

"You think that's possible? Magic?" I wasn't questioning that magic existed, but that Debbie had used it.

"Why else would I stick with her for so long? Ever since she's gone missing, it's been like someone took a pair of dark glasses off my eyes. I was willing to forgive her so much, like when she pushed you into the trunk."

Debbie had taken an opportunity to push me in a car trunk with my vampire boyfriend, Bill, who'd been starved for blood for days. And she'd walked off and

left me in the trunk with Bill, who was about to awake.

I looked down at my feet, pushing away the recollection of the desperation, the pain.

"She let you get raped," Alcide said harshly.

And like someone had flipped a switch, Victoriana was alert despite her semi-slouched posture. Even Alcide could feel the aggression rolling off her in waves. We both looked up and though she hadn't moved from her seat, we could see the firm set of her mouth and the yellow glowing of her eyes. I thought it had been my imagination or and adrenalin induced hallucination that night when I had seen her eyes glowing. She seemed to realize that we could feel her animosity and reigned it in. That when I felt Alcide's pleasure at her reaction. Honestly, I could have smacked him.

"Bill didn't know it was me," I said, pulling my attention away from Victoriana. "He hadn't had anything to eat for days and days, and the impulses are so closely related. I mean, he stopped, you know? He stopped, when he knew it was me." I couldn't put it like that to myself; I couldn't say that word. I knew beyond a doubt that Bill would rather have chewed off his own hand than done that to me if he'd been in his right mind. At that time, he'd been the only sex partner I'd ever had. My feelings about the incident were so confused that I couldn't even bear to try to pick through them. When I'd thought of rape before, when other girls had told me what had happened to them or I'd read it in their brains, I hadn't had the ambiguity I felt over my own short, awful time in the trunk.

"Rape is not accidental." I flinched and couldn't bring myself to look at Victoriana. "It matters not that he was starved or tortured. As you said, it is an impulse and impulses can be suppressed. It is certainly within your right to forgive him, but do not lie to yourself in thinking that it was any less horrid than what others have endured."

I looked up, my lip trembling. It was the first time I had talked about it, let alone thought about it since it happened.

"It was unwanted. It was rape." Victoriana continued firmly, and when I finally did manage to force myself to look up she held my gaze unblinkingly. I sniffled loudly and nodded my head that I understood.

We were all quiet for a moment as I wiped the tears away from my eyes before they could fall.

"Debbie was partially responsible for that as well." After all, I never would have been in that trunk for Bill to do that to me if she hadn't shoved me in there with him. "She knew what would happen, or at least she didn't care what would happen." Somehow, saying that made me feel better.

"And even then," Alcide said, returning to his main point. "she kept coming back and I kept trying to rationalize her behavior. I can't believe I would do that if I wasn't under some kind of magical influence."

I wasn't about to try and make Alcide feel guiltier. I had my own load of guilt to carry. "Hey, its over." As soon as I'd said it, I wished I could take it back. Though Victoriana's face was just as passive as it had been since her scolding, I could feel her pushing her feelings of warning toward me.

"You sound sure."

Well, I couldn't take it back now, so I looked him directly in the eyes. His were narrow and green. "Do you think there's the slightest chance that Debbie's alive?" I asked.

"Her family..." Alcide stopped. "No, I don't."

I couldn't get rid of Debbie Pelt, dead or alive.

"Why'd you come to talk to me in the first place?" I asked "You said over the phone you needed to tell me something."

"Colonel Flood died yesterday."

"Oh, I'm so sorry! What happened?" I looked over to Victoriana to see her lean forward. I knew she had liked Colonel Flood the most out of the werewolf pack. It might have been because he declared that she would stay, but I think it was because she appreciated his direct attitude toward her.

"He was driving to the store when another driver hit him broadside."

"That's awful. Was anyone in the car with him?" I asked thinking of his grandchildren.

"No, he was by himself. His kids are coming back to Shreveport for the funeral, of course. I wondered if you'd come to the funeral with me."

"What's a funeral?"

I paused and turned to Victoriana who had her head slightly tilted and leaning forward in her seat. "It's an event held by the friends and family of the deceased to mourn over the loss of their loved one." My mind felt blank, I had never even thought someone could exist that didn't know what a funeral was.

Her face scrunched up with what I could only describe as perplexity. I looked toward Alcide to see that he was looking at Victoriana with skepticism, he was wondering if she was being stupid on purpose. He didn't know that the things that seemed mundane in our world didn't exist in hers.

Victoriana made a face and leaned back. "What do you commonly do with your dead at these..." She scrunched her nose. "funerals." The word sounded foreign on her tongue.

"We put them in caskets," I said, and clarified at her confusion. "Wooden boxes. So that during the funeral, people can see their loved one, one last time before they are buried or cremated."

Her face scrunched up into revulsion. "What a strange ritual." She muttered mostly to herself. "This is a largely accepted custom in this dimension?"

"What do you do with your dead?" Alcide asked when he understood she wasn't mocking him or Colonel Flood.

"When permitted, we strip them of their clothing and flesh and return the bones to their ancestral grounds. The bone yards are sacred lands that you visit to pray for strength of battle." She said. "I don't understand why you would mourn your dead, do their remains not give you strength?"

It was kind of beautiful in a foreign way. I couldn't imagine the cemetery between my house and Bill's filled with bones instead of headstones and I certainly couldn't imagine myself praying to Gran or my Mama and Daddy for strength in battle.

"Well, because we miss them." Alcide said and looked to me so that I could confirm this.

"A funeral is a time to gather with others that loved the deceased. We talk about the good times we had and remember how special they were in our lives."

"This all seems very human." She said looking between Alcide and I. "The humans of my world strip their dead of cloth and inter them in the forests. Trees take root and nutrition from the corpse and provide protection for future generations."

I liked the thought of that more than the bone yards. "There's a lot of differences between our worlds." I said and she nodded thoughtfully. I turned back to Alcide. "I'll go to the funeral with you, when is it?"

"It's tomorrow, what's your work schedule like?"

"If I can't swap shifts with someone, I'd need to be back here at four-thirty to change and got to work." I looked to Victoriana. "Are you going to come."

She made a pained face. "If it's all the same, I'd rather not."

"Colonel Flood was fond of you. It would have meant something to him if you can make it." I turned to look at Alcide. Something fishy was going on here. I opened my mind and got conflicting slips of thought. He didn't want her anywhere near himself or me, but she needed to be there? Strange.

Victoriana twisted her lips in thought. "I will attend the ritual." She didn't sound excited about it.

I suppose I'd find it just as bizarre if I went to prey for strength in a bone yard. A thought struck me, "Who'll be pack master now?"

"I don't know," Alcide said, but his voice wasn't as neutral as I'd expected.

"Do you want the job?"

"No." He seemed a little hesitant, I thought, and I felt the conflict in his head. "But my father does." He wasn't finished and I waited.

"Were funerals are pretty ceremonial," He said, and I realized he was trying to tell me something. I just wasn't sure what it was.

"Spit it out." Maybe living with Victoriana had made me appreciate straightforwardness more than I had in the past.

"If you think you can over dress for this you can't," He said. "I know the rest of the shifter world thinks Weres only go for the leather and chains, but that's not true. For funerals, we go all out." He wanted to give me more fashion tips, but stopped there. I could see the thoughts crowding right behind his eyes, wanting to be let out.

"Every woman wants to know what's appropriate to wear." I said. "Thanks, I won't wear pants." I didn't think I had anything appropriate to wear, so tomorrow I'd head over to Tara's Togs to see what was on sale. I knew Victoriana'd need an outfit, too.

He shook his head. " I know you can do that, but I'm always taken by surprise." I could hear that he was disconcerted. I'll pick you up at eleven-thirty."

"I can just drive over there and meet you." I offered.

"No." He said. "I'll come get you and bring you back."

We all stood up and walked to the front door. Alcide gave a nod to Victoriana who waved and leaned down to give me a kiss on the cheek. I could hear that he'd rather kiss me on the lips but didn't want to do it with Victoriana here. I didn't know if I was thankful or not.

A/N

Thank you Guest for all those wonderful recommendations. So far 'Lost Time: From The Great Revelation Onward' is my favorite. It's just what I was looking for. Anyway, big changes will be starting soon so keep reviewing please.


	8. Chapter 8

The next morning after breakfast I walked out onto the back porch where Victoriana was folding a load of laundry. It had been an interesting experience teaching her how to work the washer and dryer and then the necessity of folding the clean laundry. Despite living in a world with more advanced technology, she had been kept in seclusion most of her life and had only washed her clothing by hand. Needless to say, she preferred this method.

"Good morning." I said and leaned against the door way. We really didn't have a lot of time this morning if we wanted to be ready by the time Alcide got here to pick me up, but I needed to talk to her about something that was bothering me.

"Good morning." She returned with a pleasant smile. I liked her smiles, they were all so different. Or maybe it was because she was apathetic more often than not that her genuine smiles seemed special. The apathy seemed to lessen with each passing day.

"There's something I wanted to talk to you about before we go over to my friends store."

She stopped folding the laundry and turned to face me fully. "Yes?"

"Last night, when you told me not to belittle what had happened in Jackson," Even now I couldn't say it. "Did something similar happen to you?" This was so uncomfortable, but I owed it to her. She needed the help just as much as I did last night.

Her eyebrows lifted in surprise. There was no anger or embarrassment, it was more of a subdued kind of shock, like she was confused as to why I asked if I already knew. I had the feeling she sometimes confused me with Birdy. She was usually quick to realize her mistake and this time was no different. "Yes."

"Would you like to talk about it?"

"... would it be beneficial to you?" She asked after a moment.

The question caught me off guard. When I readied myself to talk to her this morning, I had envisioned helping her dealing with a difficult experience to come to terms with. Looking at her now, maybe she had already moved past what had happened to her. Her words to me last night had kept me up later than I would have liked. What Bill did to me was awful and I had already forgiven him, but maybe I hadn't moved past it as I had thought. "... I think it would."

We both walked back into the kitchen and sat at the table. "First, to understand, you need to know exactly what I am." I waited patiently. "As I told you, I am a feral, and in that class of non-human, a healer. A healer isn't born randomly, its a bloodline trait that only occurs in my clan. It is very rare for a female to be born. The last female to be born before me, was my aunt who died prematurely, and it had been centuries between her and the last female."

Victoriana paused and I nodded to show her that I was following along.

"When a female in my clan is born, it is considered an omen of war." She sounded proud and I made an effort not to show my horror. To think that people would see the miracle of life as a sign of war to come was terrifying. Victoriana seemed to sense my feelings regardless. For all my years of schooling my features, she was better than the average person at reading other people. "It is an honor." She said in an attempt to assure me, but all I could think about were those tribes in remote parts of the world who had convinced young girls that being offered as a virgin sacrifice to their mad god was the highest honor they could obtain.

I wisely kept my mouth shut so as not to offend her and her race.

"The male of any coupling is the one who determines the race of the resulting offspring, if he is a titan, than so is the child, if he is a feral, than so the child, and so on and so forth. This is the same, even between a human and a non-human, though it is discouraged because the resulting offspring is very weak in comparison. Usually, the races keep to themselves to produce pure-blooded offspring. Half-breeds are weaker then their pure-blooded counterparts. As a female healer I am continuously fertile and my gestation period is significantly shorter than the average nine months resulting in multiple progeny per pregnancy."

I had known enough pregnant women to be familiar with the word. "How long is your gestation period?" I asked, I was a tiny bit envious that she didn't have to suffer through periods like the rest of us.

Victoriana smirked. "Five months, or so I've been told. I've never been pregnant. There are certain measures I can take to prevent unwanted pregnancies."

Given what I knew of her world so far, I didn't want to know what those 'measures' were in case it involved a wire coat hanger.

"The resulting offspring between myself and another would be superior to other non-humans, they would be pure-blood of the father's race, but more. In times of war, I would be used to birth many children who would be trained for battle." I had a sick feeling in my gut. If all of this information was just to understand the circumstances of her... I shuddered at the implications.

"Alright, so how did it happen to you?"

She leaned back in her chair and continued to hold my gaze. That was one of the things about Victoriana, she didn't balk. "I was in a facility from birth until mid-way to my second decade." I assume that meant she was a teenager when she left this facility. "There where other non-human orphans being trained at the facility, Birdy was my handler, she knew who I was before I did."

Victoriana smiled fondly at some obscure memory. "The rest of the staff was unaware of my heritage as a healer. Most ferals heal faster than others, it wasn't until I had reached my first decade that I transitioned. When a feral transitions into puberty we release pheromones to attract mates." I shuddered. "An older feral, past his second decade, was there when my transition occurred. His name was Kyle Gibney and he was not gentle. Like with Bill, it was an impulse, one he should have been able to control. If I had not been a healer, I would have been severely scarred, some ferals are far more animalistic than others."

"So what happened after that."

I was sorry I asked as soon as her lips spread into a terrifying smile that showcased all those large teeth. "I managed to wrestle myself onto his back and wrapped his belt around his neck. I put my foot on his spine and pulled until it snapped."

"So-" I couldn't look at her when she was smiling like that. "So, what happened then?"

"The facility of course wanted to use me to breed an entire army of super soldiers. That's what the humans called us. But Birdy, who had known who I was and had known my father, had finally managed to find him. The resulting blood bath was attributed to one of his homicidal rages so my existence was kept secret. He took me and Birdy far into Northern Canada and taught me our history."

I sat there a moment, trying to absorb it all and failing. "Well," I nodded my head like an idiot as I tried to say something, anything. But nothing came, so I stood up and made it all the way to the doorway to the hall before I could force myself to speak. "I'm glad you're here now." And I meant every word, I hoped she knew that.

She smiled at me and stood to go back out to the laundry room. "As am I."

I had just finished dressing in my borrowed outfit for the funeral when there was a knock at the door. I slipped into my black pumps and went out to the hallway. Victoriana had answered the door and was standing in the foyer with the Leeds. Jack Leeds looked openly astonished at my transformation, Lily Leeds eyebrows twitched.

While I had ended up borrowing an outfit from Tara, Victoriana had bought a dark blue dress with silvery lace stitched into the fabric. For once, she didn't look like a teenager. It was a streamlined dress with a touch of flair that showcased her mile long legs even though the skirt ended below her knees. While I had pulled my hair into a french braid with some of my Gran's antique hair pins, Victoriana had left her hair down her back like a waterfall of gold.

"Please, let's sit down in the living room." I said and gestured the way. "We're dressed for a funeral."

"I hope you're not burying a friend." Jack Leeds said. His companion's face might have been sculpted from marble. Had the woman ever heard of a tanning bed?

"Not a close one. Won't you sit down? Can I get you anything? Coffee?"

"No, thank you." He said, his smile transforming his face.

The detectives sat on the couch while Victoriana sat in the armchair and I perched on the edge of the La-Z-Boy. Somehow, my unaccustomed finery made me feel braver. That and having Victoriana here.

"About the evening Ms. Pelt vanished," Leeds began. "You saw her in Shreveport?"

"Yes, I was invited to the same party she was. At Pam's Place." All of us who'd been there had agreed on our story. Instead of telling the police that Debbie had left from the dilapidated and abandoned store where the witches had established their hideout, we'd said that we'd stayed the whole evening at Pam's house, and that Debbie had left from that address. The neighbors might have testified that everyone had left earlier en mass only to return an hour later if the Wiccans hadn't done a little magic to haze their memories of the evening. Of course, the details had to be revised when Victoriana came into the picture.

"Colonel Flood was there." I said. "Actually, it's his funeral I'm going to."

Lily looked inquiring, which was probably the equivalent of someone else exclaiming, 'Oh, you've got to be kidding!'

"Colonel Flood died in a car accident two days ago." I told them.

They glanced at each other. "So, were there quite a few people at this party?" Jack Leeds asked. I was sure he had a complete list of the people who'd been sitting in Pam's living room for what had been essentially a war council.

"Oh, yes. Quite a few. I didn't know them all. Shreveport people." I'd met Victoriana and the Wiccans that evening for the first time. I'd known the werewolves slightly. The vampires, I'd known.

"And you were there, too, Ms. Creed?" Leeds said.

"Yes, Sookie had picked me up at a truck stop before we went to the party." I hoped I sounded that convincing.

"And where are you from?"

"I've lived in Dallas since I was a child."

"And before that?" It seemed Lily Leeds picked up on a scent.

"Canada." Victoriana answered without missing a beat. "My mother was Canadian and my father, American. My mother died when I was eight and I was sent to live with my father in Texas. He died last year."

A sudden thought struck me like a bolt of lightning. What if they checked up on her? They wouldn't find anything and immediately become suspicious. What if they alerted the police, who would investigate and eventually uncover the murder of Debbie Pelt along with the existence of Weres, shifters, witches, fairies and alternate dimensions? I put a tack in my first question that I would ask aloud as soon as the Leeds left.

"So, what brings you out here to Louisiana?"

A light blush of shame crossed Victoriana's cheeks and she looked down to the hands in her lap. "My boyfriend kicked me out of our apartment so his pregnant girlfriend could move in." She mumbled and wrung her hands. Jack Leeds was sympathetic to her imaginary plight and Lily Leeds was disgusted how awful humans could be. They bought it hook, line and sinker. "I hitched the first ride to Shreveport I could get."

"So, Ms. Stackhouse, you'd met Debbie Pelt before?"

"Yes."

"When you were dating Alcide Herveaux?"

Well, they'd certainly done their homework.

"Yes." I said. "When I was dating Alcide." My face was as smooth and impassive as Lily's. I'd had lots of practice in keeping secrets.

"You stayed with him once at the Herveaux apartment in Jackson?"

I started to blurt out that we'd stayed in separate bedrooms, but it really wasn't their business. "Yes." I said with a certain edge to my voice.

"You two ran into Ms. Pelt one night in Jackson at a club called Josephine's?"

"Yes, she was celebrating her engagement to some guy named Clausen," I said.

"Did something happen between you that night?"

"Yes." I wondered whom they'd been talking to; someone had given the detectives a lot of information that they shouldn't have. "She came over to the table, made a few remarks to us."

"And you also went to see Alcide at the Herveaux office a few weeks ago? You two were at a crime scene that afternoon?"

They'd done way too much homework. "Yes," I said.

"And you told the officers at that crime scene that you and Alcide Herveaux were engaged?"

Lies will come back to bite you in the butt. "I think it was Alcide who said that," I said, trying to look thoughtful.

"And was his statement true?"

Jack Leeds was thinking that I was the most erratic woman he'd ever met, and he couldn't understand how someone who could get engaged and unengaged so adeptly could be the sensible hardworking waitress he'd seen the day before. Lily Leeds was thinking my house was very clean. (Strange, huh?) She also thought I was quite capable of killing Debbie Pelt, because she'd found people were capable of the most horrible things. She and I shared more than she'd ever know. I had the same sad knowledge, since I'd heard it directly from their brains. Neither one of them suspected Victoriana of anything other than poor taste in men. Maybe I should start taking lessons form her?

"Yes," I said. "At the time, it was true. We were engaged for, like, ten minutes. Just call me Britney."

I hated lying. I almost always knew when someone else was lying, so I felt I had LIAR printed in big letters on my forehead.

Jack Leeds' mouth quirked, but my reference to the pop singer's fifty-five-hour marriage didn't make a dent in Lily Bard Leeds.

"Did Ms. Pelt object to your seeing Alcide? "

"Oh, yes." I was glad I'd had years of practice of hiding my feelings. "But Alcide didn't want to marry her."

"Was she angry with you?"

"Yes," I said, since undoubtedly they knew the truth of that. "Yes, you could say that. She called me some names. You've probably heard that Debbie didn't believe in hiding her emotions."

"So when did you last see her?"

"I last saw her..." (with half her head gone, naked and slung over Victoriana's shoulder) "Let me think... As she left the party that night. She walked off into the dark by herself." Not from Pam's, but from another location altogether; one full of dead bodies, with blood splashed on the walls. "I just assumed she was starting back to Jackson." I shrugged.

"She didn't come by Bon Temps? It's right off the interstate on her return route."

"I can't imagine why she would. She didn't knock on my door." She'd broken in.

"You didn't see her after the party?"

"I have not seen her since that night." Now, that was the absolute truth.

"You've seen Mr. Herveaux?"

"Yes, I have."

"Are you engaged now?"

I smiled. "Not that I know of," I said.

"What about her car?" Jack Leeds asked me suddenly. I'd been trying to steal a glimpse of the clock on the mantel over the fireplace, because I wanted to be sure the duo were gone before Alcide picked me up for the funeral.

"Hmm?" I'd lost track of the conversation.

"Debbie Pelt 's car."

"What about it?"

"Do you have any idea where it is?"

"Not an idea in the world," I said with complete honesty. Victoriana had said she's tracked Debbie's scent back to her car parked across from my house on an old four-wheeler trail. She didn't say what she did with it and I didn't ask. I didn't ask what happened to Debbie either, I figured, should anyone ask, I could be semi-truthful.

"Ms. Stackhouse, just out of curiosity, what do you think happened to Debbie Pelt?"

I thought, I think she got what was coming to her. I was a little shocked at myself. Sometimes I'm not a very nice person, and I don't seem to be getting any nicer. "I don't know, Mr. Leeds," I said. "I guess I have to tell you that except for her family 's worry, I don't really care. We didn't like each other. She burned a hole in my shawl, she called me a whore, and she was awful to Alcide; though since he's a grown-up, that's his problem. She liked to jerk people around. She liked to make them dance to her tune." Jack Leeds was looking a little dazed at this flow of information. "So," I concluded, "that's the way I feel."

"Thanks for your honesty," he said, while his wife fixed me with her pale blue eyes. If I'd had any doubt, I understood clearly now that she was the more formidable of the two. Considering the depth of the investigation Jack Leeds had performed, that was saying something.

"Your collar is crooked," she said quietly. "Let me fix it." I held still while her deft fingers reached behind me and twitched the jacket until the collar lay down correctly.

They left after that. I watched them go down the driveway while Victoriana scoured the living room for listening devices. Once they were out of sight, I went back into the living room and turned my back to her. "Check my collar, too." I said.

Our paranoia was unfounded, but better safe than sorry.

"What are we going to do when the Leeds look into your past?" It had been plain as day in Lily Leeds mind that she would be running a background check on Victoriana.

"Nothing." She said. "Claudine helped me set up an entire history last week. I have birth records, school transcripts and even a drivers license." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a little plastic rectangle with her picture on it. Victoriana Creed, age 23, height 5'11, weight 157 lbs. It looked just as real as mine. I suspected fairy magic may have been involved in obtaining her documentation.

I heard a vehicle coming through the woods. Alcide was right on time. I expected to see his Dodge Ram, but to my surprise he was in a dark blue Lincoln. His hair was as smooth as it could be, which wasn't very, and he was wearing a sober charcoal gray suit and a burgundy tie. I gaped at him through the window as he came up the stepping-stones to the front porch. He looked good enough to eat, and I tried not to giggle like an idiot at the mental image. Victoriana came up behind me to peer through the window over my shoulder. She made a noise in her throat halfway between and growl in a purr that lit my face up like a Christmas tree. When I looked over my shoulder at her she gave me a salacious gin and wink.


	9. Chapter 9

"There's Dad," Alcide said as we approached a knot of mourners. Alcide's father was a little shorter than Alcide, but he was a husky man like his son. Jackson Herveaux had iron-gray hair instead of black, and a bolder nose. He had the same olive skin as Alcide. Jackson looked all the darker because he was standing by a pale, delicate woman with gleaming white hair.

"Father." Alcide said formally, "this is Sookie Stackhouse and Victoriana Creed."

"A pleasure to meet you, Sookie, Victoriana." Jackson Herveaux said. "This is Christine Larrabee." Christine, who might have been anything from fifty-seven to sixty-seven, looked like a painting done in pastels. Her eyes were a washed-out blue, her smooth skin was magnolia pale with the faintest tinge of pink, her white hair was immaculately groomed. She was wearing a light blue suit, which I personally wouldn't have worn until the winter was completely over, but she looked great in it, for sure.

"Nice to meet you," I said, wondering if I should curtsy. I d shaken hands with Alcide's father, but Christine didn't extend her hand. She gave me a nod and a sweet smile. I nudged Victoriana with my elbow when she didn't make any acknowledgments toward the older woman, instead, she had been looking around curiously.

Victoriana snapped to attention. "Hello." It seemed so bizarre to me how one minute she was so awkward it made all those around her cringe and the next minute she was charming and entrapping her audience. Of course, the only time she was like the latter was when she was playing a role for those out of the know. Unfortunately for Christine, Victoriana had deemed her safe enough to show her true self to.

"Ah, yes, I've heard of you." Christine said, and there was no inflection in her voice one way or the other.

"I've not heard of you."

I closed my eyes and counted to ten. Socializing was not a skill Victoriana utilized in everyday situations. It seemed, though, some found it her candid personality charming. Thankfully, Christine fell into this group. Her laugh was just as regal as I would have expected from a woman like her. "I suppose you wouldn't have. Its a pleasure to meet you both, its just unfortunate it has to be during such a sad occasion."

If she wanted to do polite chit-chat, I was up to it. I'd have to keep an eye on Victoriana though. "Yes, Colonel Flood was a wonderful man." I said.

"Oh, that's right, you two met him a couple of weeks ago during the witch war."

"Yes." Victoriana said. Her brief answer much of anywhere for the conversation to go. I saw genuine amusement lurking in Christine's pale eyes. Alcide and his dad were exchanging comments, which we were obviously supposed to be ignoring.

"Which of you is accompanying Alcide today?"

"I suppose that'd be me." I said, he had asked me last night.

Christine gave me an indulgent smile as though we were talking about the silly things men got up to in their spare time. "You and I are strictly decorations, today."

Victoriana was looking around her with open curiosity at the gathered mourners. Every now and then, her eyes would pause on someone before she'd look away. If her hearing was as good as I thought, then she could probably hear all the individual conversations in the area. I wonder if she was listening to them like I did when I worked at Merlotte's, just listening to all the voices in the background until a word or phrase caught my interest.

"Then you know more than I do."

"I expect so. You're the telepath, correct?"

"That's right." I said. "So what's going to happen in there?"

"The funeral of a pack master marks the opening of the campaign to replace him." Christine said. "There are more roped-off pews than usual. The whole pack will sit at the front of the church, the mated ones with their mates, of course, and their children. The candidates for pack master will come in last."

"How are they chosen?"

"They announce themselves," she said. "But they'll be put to the test, and then the membership votes."

"Why is Alcide's dad bringing you, or is that a real personal question?"

"I'm the widow of the pack master prior to Colonel Flood," Christine Larrabee said quietly. "That gives me a certain influence."

I nodded. "Is the pack master always a man?"

"No. But since strength is part of the test, males usually win."

"How many candidates are there?"

"Two. Jackson, of course, and Patrick Furnan. She inclined her patrician head slightly to her right, and I gave a closer look at the couple that had been on the periphery of my attention.

Patrick Furnan was in his mid-forties, somewhere between Alcide and his father. He was a thick bodied man with a light brown crew cut and a very short beard shaved into a fancy shape. His suit was brown, too, and he'd had trouble buttoning the jacket. His companion was a pretty woman who believed in a lot of lipstick and jewelry. She had short brown hair, too, but it was highlighted with blond streaks and elaborately styled. Her heels were at least three inches high. I eyed the shoes with awe. I would break my neck if I tried to walk in them. But this woman maintained a smile and offered a good word to everyone who approached. Patrick Furnan was colder. His narrow eyes measured and assessed every Were in the gathering crowd.

"Tammy Faye, there, is his wife?" I asked Christine in a discreetly low tone.

Christine made a sound that I would have called a snigger if it had issued from someone less patrician. "She does wear a lot of makeup." Christine said. "Her name is Libby, actually. Yes, she's his wife and a full-blooded Were, and they have two children. So he's added to the pack."

"They think we are a threat."

Both Christine and I turn to Victoriana who towered over both of us in her two inch heels that made her legs look even longer. She glanced at the couple in question before turning her attention to us.

"What do you mean?" I couldn't possibly imagine how I could be a threat to anyone.

"By attending the funeral with Jackson and Alcide, we have aligned ourselves with Jackson. This will effect the others in the pack when they cast their vote."

At least that explained Alcide's strange behavior and thoughts. "How do you know they think we're threats?" I asked Victoriana, after all, I was the telepath. Christine looked just as interested.

"I can hear them talking to each other." She glanced over their way again. "The man has issued orders to two of his underlings to follow and ask around about us so that they may exploit any faults we may have." Victoriana nodded her head at the wife, Libby. "She would like to discredit you," She said to Christine. "but, the man claims that it is too risky a move. He insists that they should concentrate their efforts on Jackson, Sookie and I."

"Did you happen to hear what he plans to use to discredit Jackson?" Christine asked.

Victoriana shook her head. "Patrick Furnan mentioned Jackson's prepubescent woman would be involved, but nothing more."

I hoped Alcide hadn't heard that. I had decided weeks ago that it wasn't any of my business to out Herveaux senior to junior about sleeping with his twenty something secretary. Christine, however, did not have the same reservations as I and made an amused noise in the back of her throat. I could hear that she had suspected as much and that after the funeral that she would discreetly warn Jackson.

"Hello ladies." Came the melodic voice of Claudine Crane.

I turned around to see the fairy in a mauve dress with clunky gold jewelry. I was of the firm belief that Claudine would look like a runway model no matter what she wore. "Claudine." I greeted and revived a hug and a kiss on the cheek. She did the same for Christine. Victoriana got a hug as well but then Claudine went one step further and kissed her on the lips and looped their arms together like they had been friends for ages.

I had never thought Claudine preferred women and I still didn't, Sam had explained to me that fairies liked to touch and when they found someone whose scent they liked, they touched them even more. The phrase he had used was like a moth to flame and by God that's exactly what Claudine looked like when she was around Victoriana. I had relayed Sam's words to my housemate who was relieved to know the reason behind the fairy's hoovering. I wondered if Claudine's twin Claude would have the same reaction and how composed Victoriana would be when he started to hoover.

"Claudine, so good of you to come." Jackson said, as he and Alcide rejoined the conversation. Claudine let go of Victoriana and gave both father and son the same treatment Christine and I had received.

"It was lucky I could get off work, the others weren't as fortunate." She had returned to Victoriana's side once more. I wondered who the others were and looked to Christine.

"The other fairies who have been named friends of the pack. They'll only come to funerals for the pack master and usually only one of them will act as a representative. Their kind don't have funerals." I wanted to ask what they did when another fairy died, but thought it might be tacky.

My attention was caught by the dull gleam of a shaved head, and I stepped a bit to my left to have a better view. I'd never seen this man before. I would certainly have remembered him; he was very tall, taller than Alcide or even Eric, I thought.

He had big shoulders and arms roped with muscle. His head and arms were the brown of a Caucasian with a real tan. I could tell, because he was wearing a sleeveless black silk tee tucked into black pants and shiny dress shoes. It was a nippy day at the end of January, but the cold didn't seem to affect him at all. There was a definite space between him and the people around him.

As I looked at him, wondering, he turned and looked at me, as if he could feel my attention. He had a proud nose, and his face was as smooth as his shaved head. At this distance, his eyes looked black.

"Who is that?" I asked Christine, my voice a thread in the wind that had sprung up, tossing the leaves of the holly bushes planted around the church. Christine darted a look at the man, and she must have known whom I meant, but she didn't answer.

Regular people had gradually been filtering through the Weres, going up the steps and into the church. Now two men in black suits appeared at the doors. They crossed their hands in front of them, and the one on the right nodded at Jackson Herveaux and Patrick Furnan.

The two men, with their female companions, came to stand facing each other at the bottom of the steps. The assembled Weres passed between them to enter the church followed by friends of the pack, Claudine and Victoriana among them. Some nodded at one, some at the other, some at both. Fence-sitters. I counted thirty-one full-blooded adult Weres in Shreveport, a very large pack for such a small city. Its size was attributable to the Air Force base, I figured.

"We go in a second," Alcide murmured. He was standing beside me, scanning the faces as they went by.

"I'm going to kill you later," I told him, keeping my face calm for the Weres passing by. "Why didn't you explain this?"

The tall man walked up the steps, his arms swinging as he walked, his large body

moving with purpose and grace. His head swung toward me as he went by, and I met his eyes. They were very dark, but still I couldn't distinguish the color. He smiled at me.

Alcide touched my hand, as if he knew my attention had wandered. He leaned over to whisper in my ear, "I need your help. I need you to find a chance after the funeral to read Patrick's mind. He's going to do something to sabotage my father."

I passed the Lincoln in the parking lot of the church and kept going to where I could see Victoriana and Claudine waiting for me. Claudine had invited the two of us to lunch after the service and I was all too willing to except. Anything to get away from Alcide. I was hurt and angry and his proximity was only making it worse.

"Sookie, wait!" He called as he jogged to catch up with me. I cursed my shoes for not being more suitable for escaping werewolves.

I came to an abrupt halt but didn't turn around. "Patrick Whatshisname plans to bring up your dad's gambling problems to show he's unsuitable as pack master." Nothing more underhanded and supernatural than the truth. "I'd read his mind before you asked me to." There was no reason to tell him about what Victoriana had over heard. "I don't want to see you for a long, long, long time."

"What?" I could feel his fingers brush my arm as though he were going to grab it but stopped, he sounded like someone had hit him in the head with an iron.

"All you had to do was ask." I said. "You didn't have to try and trick me or blackmail me." I was so angry I wanted to scream and cry but held it together. My makeup looked pretty good today and I wouldn't let Alcide mess it up. "So, thanks for the ride to the funeral," (I may have sounded a bit sarcastic) "I appreciate you thinking of me." (Even higher probability of sarcasm here.) I continued to walk away from him over to where Victoriana and Claudine where waiting. I heard him slam his fist on someone's car before storming off.

"Oh, sweetie, are you alright?" Claudine asked as she pulled me into a hug. I rested my head on her shoulder and hugged her back.

"I'll be fine." And even though I knew it to be truth, it still felt like a lie.

When I got home that night after work I was angry and exhausted. Sam had guilt tripped me into hosting Charles, the pirate vampire. It had been a long day of strained friendships with some of the men in my life. I could only hope tomorrow would be better.

I unlocked the back door and lead Charles, the on loan bartender/bouncer from Fangtasia, into my kitchen. "Feel free to explore." I said after I'd invited h8im over the threshold. Vampires like to know entrances and exits. "Then I'll show you your sleeping place."

Victoriana entered the kitchen before we'd even made it halfway across the room. She was holding a bag of beef jerky and munching on a piece. My feral housemate had a very large appetite and a very flat stomach. She was no longer as skinny as she had been when I first met her in a room full of dead witches and blood splatters. Instead she had filled out in to hard, lean muscle. I was jealous, but in those moments, I liked to remind myself that my natural bounty was still more than hers.

"Charles, this is my roommate, Victoriana Creed." I said. "Victoriana, this is Charles Twining. He's filling in for Sam while he recovers and is going to be staying here for awhile."

"You're the one from the other dimension?"

I turned to look at Charles with surprise. Had the vampires at Fangtasia been talking? I could maybe see Chow talking about it, but as far as I knew, vampires weren't the type to gossip like old biddies. "Supes talk." He said with a shrug of his shoulders.

Well, it's not like any one had insisted on a pact of silence in regards to Victoriana.

I left to go put my purse down in my room and when I returned, Both Charles and Victoriana were sitting down at the table. Charles had a bottle of the type O Tru Blood I kept in my refrigerator and was drinking from it. Victoriana was still chowing down on her jerky but she had made me a sandwich. She was a good roommate to have.

Charles was recounting the same history he had told me when I had drove him from Shreveport to Bon Temps. Victoriana was asking question after question. I had come to learn that while our two worlds were similar in terms of geography and some of the same countries, our histories were vastly different. It seemed, in her world, an early conqueror had formed an empire that spanned Africa, Asia and Europe and that was one of the major reasons our dimensions were so different and foreign to each other.

After I finished my sandwich, I interrupted their conversation to show Charles the lift-up floor panel in the guest bedroom closet. I told him how the television remote worked, showed him my little collection of movies, and pointed out the books on the shelves in the guest bedroom and living room. By this point, Victoriana had retired up stairs for the evening.

"Is there anything else you can think of you might need?" I asked. My grandmother brought me up right, though I don't think she ever imagined I'd have to be hostess to a bunch of vampires.

"No, thank you, Miss Sookie," Charles said politely. His long white fingers tapped his eye patch, an odd habit of his that gave me the cold gruesomes.

"Then, if you'll excuse me, I'll say good night." I was tired, and it was exhausting work making conversation with a near stranger.

"Of course. Rest easy, Sookie. If I want to roam in the woods...?"

"Feel free," I said immediately. I had an extra key to the back door, and I got it out of the drawer in the kitchen where I kept all the keys. This had been the odds and ends drawer for perhaps eighty years, since the kitchen had been added onto the house. There were at least a hundred keys in it. Some, those that were old when the kitchen was added, were mighty strange looking. I'd labeled the ones from my generation, and I'd put the back door key on a bright pink plastic key ring from my State Farm insurance agent.

"Once you're in for the night well, for good shoot the dead bolt, please."

He nodded and took the key.

It was usually a mistake to feel sympathy for a vampire, but I couldn't help but think there was something sad about Charles. He struck me as lonely, and there's always something pathetic about loneliness. I'd experienced it myself. I would ferociously deny I was pathetic, but when I viewed loneliness in someone else, I could feel the tug of pity. My thoughts turned to Victoriana who had been more playful and talkative the longer she stayed in this world.

I scrubbed my face and pulled on some pink nylon pajamas. I was already half-asleep as I brushed my teeth and crawled into the high old bed my grandmother had slept in until she died. My great-grandmother had made the quilt I pulled over me, and my great-aunt Julia had embroidered the pattern on the edges of the bedspread. Though I might actually be alone in the world with the exception of my brother, Jason I went to sleep surrounded by my family.


	10. Chapter 10

I was jerked into awareness at the sound of persistent shrieking and feet thundering down the hall. I let out a shriek when a hand clamped down on my shoulder. To fight of the shock that was close to paralyzing me, I swung my fist. It was pushed aside by something wearing sweet perfume. Normally, I wouldn't have noticed something like that when I was still pretty groggy, but the acrid odor of smoke had engulfed my room making the sweet scent stand out.

"Sookie, your house is on fire." A voice said.

"...What?" I rubbed my eyes and looked around until I found Claudine's face in the dark.

"You have to get out now." The shrieking, I realized was my fire alarm.

My door slammed open and I saw Victoriana standing in the doorway in her pj's and something in her hands. There was a red glow behind her and in my partial sleep state, I thought she looked like a demon emerging from hell. It didn't help that smoke was rising off her skin. Though, maybe it was steam, she was always warmer to the touch than should be normal.

"Claudine?" She said, whatever she had planned to say before dyeing on the tip of her tongue at the sight of the fairy. She seemed to shake herself from the confusion and looked to me. "You need to get out of here now!"

I looked down for my slippers and two things happened. The first was that Victoriana roared, "Move," like I imagine a drill Sargent might. The second was that Claudine decided I wasn't moving fast enough bodily carried me out of the house. A woman had never carried me before, but of course, Claudine was no ordinary woman. She set me on my feet in the chilly grass of the front yard. The cold feel of it brought reality crashing down around me like a glass ceiling. This was a nightmare.

"My house caught on fire?" My voice sounded distant to my ears.

"The vampire says it was that human there," She said pointing to the left of the house. But for a long minute my eyes were fixed on the terrible sight of flames, and the red glow of fire lightning the night. The back porch and part of the kitchen were blazing.

I made myself look at the huddled form on the ground, Charles was kneeling by it. "Have you called the fire department?" I asked them both, something seemed to be missing, but for the life of me I couldn't think of what it was.

"Oh, no, I didn't think of it." Charles looked up from the body. He came from a time before fire departments.

"I forgot my cell phone, but I think Victoriana called them." Said Claudine.

Alarm rose in me and I looked around wildly for my feral friend, she was the something that was missing. "I thought she was right behind us when we came out!" I said, turning on my heel. "She could be trapped or hurt! I have to go back in and get her!" Charles rose to his inconsiderable height and stared at me.

"You will not go back in there." This was definitely and order from Claudine. "Look here she comes now."

I turned to see Victoriana emerging from the front door like a phantom with smoke swirling around her and steam rising off her skin like a tea kettle. She jogged over to us glanced at the crumpled form next to Charles. "I called the fire brigade." She said just as the sound of sirens in the distance reached my ears. Victoriana passed me a coat and a pair of shoes from my closet.

Being late January, it was still quite chilly out and the grass was wet with dew. I hurriedly slipped my shoes and coat on and sighed into the warmth. I hadn't realized just how cold I was until I was warm again. "What took you so long to get out of the house?" I hoped I sounded more worried than ungrateful, it certainly sounded that way to my ears.

"I was closing all the doors and placing wet towels under the door jams to minimize damage from the fire." Was that what she had had in her hand when she had burst into my room? God bless this awkward woman and her clear thinking.

"Thank you." Claudine looped one long arm around my shoulders and pulled me into her. I didn't know what it was about Claudine, maybe it was because she was a fairy, but when she touched me, I almost instantly felt better. At least a little bit, my house was still on fire.

Now I could see the flashing lights of the fire engines turning into my driveway, and I blessed every person who was coming to help. I knew that pagers had gone off all over the area, and the volunteers had rushed to the firehouse straight from their beds.

Catfish Hunter, my brother's boss, pulled up in his car. He leaped out and ran right to me. "Anyone left inside?" he asked urgently. The town's fire truck pulled in after him, scattering my new gravel all to hell. I glanced toward Victoriana and was thankful to see she had stopped steaming.

"No," I said.

"Is there a propane tank?"

"Yes."

"Where?"

"Backyard."

"Where's your car, Sookie?"

"In the back," I said, and my voice was starting to shake.

"Propane tank in the back!" Catfish bellowed over his shoulder.

There was an answering yell, followed by a lot of purposeful activity. I recognized Hoyt Fortenberry and Ralph Tooten, plus four or five other men and a couple of women.

Catfish, after a quick conversation with Hoyt and Ralph, called over a smallish woman who seemed swamped by her gear. He pointed to the still figure in the grass, and she threw off her helmet and knelt beside him. After some peering and touching, she shook her head. I barely recognized her as Dr. Robert Meredith's nurse, Jan something.

"Who's the dead man?" asked Catfish. He didn't seem too upset by the corpse.

"I have no idea," I said. I only discovered how shocked I was by the way my

voice came out quavery, small. Claudine gave me a comforting squeeze with the arm around my shoulders.

A police car pulled in to the side of the fire truck, and Sheriff Bud Dearborn got out of the driver's seat. Andy Bellefleur was his passenger.

Claudine said, "Ah-oh."

"Yeah," I said.

Then Charles was with me again, and Bill was right on his heels. I hadn't even realized he'd left and to go get Bill. There had been a less than friendly encounter between the two earlier. The vampires took in the frantic but purposeful activity. They noticed Claudine.

The small woman, who'd stood to resume her gear, called, "Sheriff, do me a favor and call an ambulance to take this body away."

Bud Dearborn glanced at Andy, who turned away to speak into the car radio.

"Having one dead beau ain't enough, Sookie?" Bud Dearborn asked me.

"That was awful rude for a public servant." Victoriana said, one blonde eyebrow raised in judgment, I was sure this was another act for the public, otherwise, I had a feeling she would have snarled something nasty to the Parish Sheriff. Bud Dearborn had never once held an ounce of apology for all the backhanded comments he had made to me since I first started dating Bill.

Until tonight. Even in the dark I could see the blush on his cheeks as he lowered his head. "Sorry about that, Sookie."

The firefighters broke out the window by my great-great-grandmother 's dining table, and a visible rush of heat and sparks gushed into the night. The pumper truck made a lot of noise, and the tin roof that covered the kitchen and porch separated from the house.

My home was going up in flames and smoke and I didn't care what Bud or anyone else thought of the two vampires in my yard.

Claudine was on my left and Victoriana came to stand to my right. Together, we watched the firefighters aim the hose through the broken window. A sound of shattering glass from the other side of the house indicated they were breaking the window over the sink, too. While the firefighters concentrated on the fire, the police concentrated on the body. Charles stepped up to bat right away.

"I killed him," he said calmly. "I caught him setting fire to the house. He was armed, and he attacked me."

Sheriff Bud Dearborn looked more like a Pekinese than any human ought to. His face was practically concave. His eyes were round and bright, and at the moment extremely curious. His brown hair, liberally streaked with gray, was combed back from his face all around, and I expected him to snuffle when he spoke. "And you would be?" he asked the vampire.

"Charles Twining," Charles answered gracefully. "At your service."

I could see Bud and Andy physically restraining themselves not to make some sort of comment. After Victoriana's reprimand, I had a feeling they'd be on good behavior for the rest of the night. I turned to see Victoriana's reaction but her eyes were on Charles and she was frowning. In fact, if I hadn't been watching her, I wouldn't have noticed her subtle movements to place herself between Charles and myself. I couldn't fathom why she would be worried about him. Did it make her nervous because he had killed a man? That didn't sound right. I'd be sure to ask her about it later.

"And you'd be on the spot because...?"

"He's staying with me," Bill said smoothly, "while he works at Merlotte's."

Presumably the sheriff had already heard about the new bartender, because he just nodded. I was relieved at not having to confess that Charles was supposed to be sleeping in my closet, and I blessed Bill for having lied about that. Our eyes met for a moment.

"So you admit you killed this man?" Andy asked Charles. Charles nodded curtly.

It wasn't often I heard or felt things from Victoriana's mind, but when I did, I took notice. The warmth of her brain was heating up and crackling like the fire in the house. If she had been a human or even normal, Victoriana would have been shuffling about in an antsy manner. As it was, her face was placid and she was looking toward the fire, away from the rest of us but I knew she was listening intently to every word. At least, I was pretty sure she was.

Andy beckoned to the woman in hospital scrubs who'd been waiting by her car which made maybe five cars in my front yard, plus the fire truck. This new arrival glanced at me curiously as she walked past to the huddled form in the bushes. Pulling a stethoscope from a pocket, she knelt by the man and listened to various parts of his body. "Yep, dead as a doornail," she called.

Andy had gotten a Polaroid out of the police car to take pictures of the body. Since the only light was the flash of the camera and the flicker of flame from my burning house, I didn't think the pictures would turn out too well. I was numb with shock, and I watched Andy as if this were an important activity.

"What a pity. It would have been a good thing to find out why he torched Sookie 's house," Bill said as he watched Andy work. His voice rivaled a refrigerator for coldness.

"In my fear for Sookie's safety, I suppose I struck too hard." Charles tried to look regretful.

"Since his neck seems to be broken, I suppose you did," said the doctor, studying Charles's white face with the same careful attention she'd given mine. The doctor was in her thirties, I thought; a woman slim to the point of skinny, with very short red hair. She was about five foot three, and she had elfin features, or at least the kind I 'd always thought of as elfin: a short, turned-up nose, wide eyes, large mouth. Her words were both dry and bold, and she didn't seem at all disconcerted by or excited at being called out in the middle of the night for something like this. She must be the parish coroner, so I must have voted for her, but I couldn't recall her name.

"Who are you?" Claudine asked in her sweetest voice.

The doctor blinked at the vision of Claudine. Claudine, at this ungodly hour of the morning, was in full makeup and a fuchsia knit top with black knit leggings. Her shoes were fuchsia and black striped, and her jacket was, too. Claudine's black rippling hair was held off her face with fuchsia combs.

"I'm Dr. Tonnesen. Linda. Who are you?"

"Claudine Crane," the fairy said.

"And why were you here on the spot, Ms. Crane?" Andy Bellefleur asked.

"I'm Sookie's fairy godmother," Claudine said, laughing. Though the scene was grim, everyone of us humans laughed, too. It was like we just couldn't stop being cheerful around Claudine. But I wondered very much about Claudine's explanation.

"No, really," Bud Dearborn said. "Why are you here, Ms. Crane?"

Claudine smiled impishly. "I was spending the night with Sookie," she said, winking. To make it even worse, Victoriana had decided to play along and looped her arm around my waist, offering everyone a secretive smile. She was by far the most under dressed out of everyone here, in a tank top and shorts. But even through my coat and the crispy night air, I could feel her warmth leaking through.

In a second, we were the objects of fascinated scrutiny from every male within hearing, and I had to lock down my head as if it were a maximum-security prison to block the mental images the guys were broadcasting.

Andy shook himself, closed his mouth, and squatted by the dead man. "Bud, I'm going to roll him," he said a little hoarsely, and turned the corpse so he could feel inside the dead man's pockets. The man's wallet proved to be in his jacket, which seemed a little unusual to me. Andy straightened and stepped away from the body to examine the billfold's contents.

"You want to have a look, see if you recognize him?" Sheriff Dearborn asked me. Of course I didn't, but I also saw that I really didn't have a choice.

Nervously, I inched a little closer and looked again at the face of the dead man. He still looked ordinary. He still looked dead. He might be in his thirties. "I don't know him," I said, my voice small in the din of the firefighters and the water pouring onto the house.

"What?" Bud Dearborn was having trouble hearing me. His round brown eyes were locked onto my face.

"Don 't know him!" I said, almost yelling. "I've never seen him, that I remember. Claudine? Victoriana?"

I don 't know why I asked them. Victoriana shook her head 'no', but Claudine didn't.

"Oh, yes, I've seen him," she said cheerfully.

That attracted the undivided attention of the two vampires, the two lawmen, the doctor, and me. Victoriana just turned to the fairy with her head tilted in mild curiosity.

"Where?"

Claudine threw her arm around my shoulders again. "Why, he was in Merlotte's tonight. You were too worried about your friend to notice, I guess. He was over in the side of the room where I was sitting."

Arlene had been working that side.

It wasn't too amazing that I'd missed one male face in a crowded bar. But it did bother me that I'd been listening in to people's thoughts and I'd missed out on thoughts that must have been relevant to me. After all, he was in the bar with me, and a few hours later he'd set fire to my house. He must have been mulling me over, right?

"This driver's license says he's from Little Rock, Arkansas," Andy said.

"That wasn't what he told me," Claudine said. "He said he was from Georgia." She looked just as radiant when she realized he'd lied to her, but she wasn't smiling. "He said his name was Marlon."

"Did he tell you why he was in town, Ms. Crane?"

"He said he was just passing through, had a motel room up on the interstate."

"Did he explain any further?"

"Nope."

"Did you go to his motel, Ms. Crane?" Bud Dearborn asked in his best non-judgmental voice.

Dr. Tonnesen was looking from speaker to speaker as if she was at a verbal tennis match.

"Gosh, no, I don't do things like that." Claudine smiled all around.

Bill looked as if someone had just waved a bottle of blood in front of his face. His fangs extended, and his eyes fixed on Claudine. Vampires can only hold out so long when fairies are around. Charles had stepped closer to Claudine, too, but Victoriana had grabbed him in a discreet way. I knew she was stronger than the average human or even Were, but I wondered if she'd have the strength to hold back a vampire.

Claudine had to leave before the lawmen observed how the vampires were reacting. Linda Tonnesen had already noticed; she herself was pretty interested in Claudine. I hoped she'd just attribute the vamps' fascination to Claudine's excellent looks, rather than the overwhelming allure fairies held for vamps.

"Fellowship of the Sun," Andy said. "He has an honest-to-God membership card in here. There's no name written on the card; that's strange. His license is issued to Jeff Marriot." He looked at me questioningly.

I shook my head. The name meant nothing to me.

It was just like a Fellowship member to think that he could do something as nasty as torching my house with me in it and no one would question him. It wasn't the first time the Fellowship of the Sun, an anti-vampire hate group, had tried to burn me alive.

"He must have known you've had, ah, an association with vampires," Andy said into the silence.

"I'm losing my home, and I could have died, because I know vampires?"

Even Bud Dearborn looked a little embarrassed.

"Someone must have heard you used to date Mr. Compton, here," Bud muttered. "I'm sorry, Sookie."

I said, "Claudine needs to leave."

The abrupt change of subject startled both Andy and Bud, as well as Claudine. She looked at the two vampires, Charles wasn't fighting back a lot from Victoriana, just leaning into her, but Bill was definitely closer, and hastily said, "Yes, I'm sorry, I have to get back home. I have to work tomorrow."

"Where's your car, Ms. Crane?" Bud Dearborn looked around elaborately. "I didn't see any car but Sookie's, and it's parked in the back."

"I'm parked over at Bill's," Claudine lied smoothly, having had years of practice. Without waiting for further discussion, she disappeared into the woods, and only my hands gripping Bills arm prevented him from gliding into the darkness after her. Both vampires were staring into the blackness of the trees when I pinched them, hard.

Andy and Bud left shortly after Claudine's departure, quickly followed by Dr. Tonnesen. As soon as the doctor's red range rover pulled out of sight, the fire chief and Catfish trudged over. Catfish was sweating despite the cold and his face was smudged with smoke.

"Sookie, we got it put out." He said wearily. "It's a lot better than I thought it would be."

"It is?" I said in a small voice and moved closer to Victoriana and her warmth.

"That's right." He said, and managed a tired smile. "Your car and back porch are gone, but your kitchen is salvageable. There's some fire and water damage, but nothing too bad."

That wasn't too bad. Catfish was right, I thought it would have been a lot worse. I started nodding my head to myself. "Okay."

"Whoever went through and closed all the doors and blocked them saved your house. They fire would have probably spread to the living room and back rooms by the time we would have been able to get it under control."

I looked to Victoriana with her smudged face and bright amber eyes. "You saved my house." I felt a little disconnected from my body. There was not a doubt in my mind that Claudine would have dragged me out of my house and saved my life. But if Victoriana hadn't gone through and sealed off all the rooms and called the fire department, the Stackhouse house, which had stood for over a hundred years, would be ash. "Thank you."

She gave me a closed lipped smile as she often displayed in public.

The next twenty minutes were spent discussing whether or not I had home owners insurance (like my Gran before me, I insured with Greg Aubert), and where Victoriana and I would stay for the night. Bill was quick to offer up his home for us.

I could hardly believe that a stranger had decided I should lose my home and my life because of my dating preference. Thinking at that moment of how close I'd come to death, I didn't feel it was unjust that he'd lost his own life in the process. I admitted to myself that I thought Charles had done a good thing. I might owe my life to Sam's insistence that the vampire be billeted at my house. If Sam had been there at the moment, I would have given him a very enthusiastic thank-you.

Finally Bill, Charles, Victoriana and I started over to Bill's house. Catfish had advised me not to go back into my house until the morning, and then only after the insurance agent and the arson investigator had checked it over. Dr. Tonnesen had told me that if Victoriana or I felt wheezy, to come in to her office in the morning. She'd said some other stuff, but I hadn't quite absorbed it, I hope Victoriana had been paying attention.

It was dark in the woods, of course, and by then it was maybe five in the morning. After a few paces into the trees, Bill picked me up and carried me. I didn't protest, because I was so tired I'd been wondering how I was going to manage stumbling through the cemetery.

Bill had only one room set up as a bedroom and so Victoriana and I trudged up the stairs to the single queen sized bed, well, I trudged. Victoriana didn't look tired at all, a little dirty, but not tired. She looked alert and had stuck close to my side the entire time. I remembered her odd behavior when Charles was recounting events to Bud and Andy. I wanted to question her, but I was just so tired, it was a miracle I made it up the stairs without someone carrying me, though I was pretty sure both vampires and Victoriana were tempted.

I was out like a light as soon as my head hit the pillow.

A/N

Many apologies, I actually had this puppy all typed up and ready to upload but life got in the way. I hope you enjoy and I;m sorry for the delay.


	11. Chapter 11

Jason and I were sitting on the tailgate of his truck, staring at the crispy remains of the back porch in silent shock. Greg Aubert, had just left after finishing his inspection. The second floor was fine as was most of the first floor, though I'd need a builder to confirm it. My appliances were all ruined and new ones would need to be bought to replace them. But the kitchen was mostly unharmed. Maybe it was because Victoriana had risked some major burns to seal off all the rooms, or maybe it was because my conventional insurance agent went around casting spells on his policies when no one was looking. It could have been both.

Whatever the case, I was thankful the kitchen was still standing. I don't know what I'd do if I'd had to have another one built. A large portion of my life had happened in that room. I'd confessed to my Gran what her brother thought of me. Jason had nearly been whipped blind when Denise Mayer's father had called the house enraged, after his third grade daughter had confessed that she'd seen Jason's little boy parts. Gran had given us all the important talks our late parents couldn't to prepare us for life. This kitchen had held memories, both good and bad. Those moments couldn't be duplicated.

"If I'd been here, I coulda killed him."

"In your new body?" I asked.

"Yeah. It would've given that sumbitch the scare of his life before he left it."

"I think Charles probably was pretty scary, but I appreciate the thought."

"They put the vamp in jail?"

"No, Bud Dearborn just told him not to leave town. After all, the Bon Temps jail doesn't have a vampire cell. And regular cells don't hold 'em, plus they have windows."

"That's where the guy was from Fellowship of the Sun? Just a stranger who came to town to do you in?"

"That 's what it looks like."

"What they got against you? Other than you dating Bill and associating with some of the other vamps?"

Actually, the Fellowship had quite a bit against me. I'd been responsible for their huge Dallas church being raided and one of their main leaders going underground. The papers had been full of what the police had found in the Fellowship building in Texas. Arriving to find the members dashing in turmoil around their building, claiming vampires had attacked them, the police entered the building to search it and found a basement torture chamber, illegal arms adapted to shoot wooden stakes into vampires, and a corpse. The police failed to see a single vampire. Steve and Sarah Newlin, the leaders of the Fellowship church in Dallas, had been missing since that night.

I'd seen Steve Newlin since then. He'd been at Club Dead in Jackson. He and one of his cronies had been preparing to stake a vampire in the club when I'd prevented them. Newlin had escaped; his buddy hadn't.

It appeared that the Newlins' followers had tracked me down. I hadn't foreseen such a thing, but then, I'd never foreseen anything that had happened to me in the past year. When Bill had been learning how to use his computer, he'd told me that with a little knowledge and money, anyone could be found through a computer.

Maybe the Fellowship had hired private detectives, like the couple who had been in my house yesterday. Maybe Jack and Lily Leeds had just been pretending to be hired by the Pelt family? Maybe the Newlins were their real employers? They hadn't struck me as politicized people, but the power of the color green is universal.

"I guess dating a vampire was enough for them to hate me," I told Jason. "Who do you think I should call about rebuilding the kitchen?" At least the part by the back door.

I didn't think I needed an architect: I just wanted to replace what was missing. I had more than enough money to satisfy the deductible, and I was sure the insurance would pay for most of the rest.

The sound of another truck coming down the driveway had us both looking up. Maxine Fortenberry, Hoyt's mother, got out of the cab with a couple of laundry baskets. Victoriana got out of the passengers seat with a couple bags from McDonald's and what looked like coffee.

I had awoken this morning after only three hours of sleep to find Victoriana gone. In her place was a note, saying she was going into town for some amenities. If she didn't ride with me, Victoriana walked everywhere. Sometimes people gave her lifts, but she said she enjoyed the fresh air so I didn't push her to borrow my car more often.

Out of her teeny tiny pajamas most of the firefighters had been drooling over and into a pair of jeans and a long sleeved shirt. I hoped she had brought a change of clothes for me as well.

"I found Victoriana walking down the road to the McDonald's in nothing but her night clothes." Maxine said as she bustled over toward me and Jason. "Hoyt told me what happened last night, so I gave her a ride to Walmart to get you two some clothes."

Victoriana sat the two paper bags down between me and Jason. I was sure there was probably more than I could ever eat in there.

"Now, where are your clothes at, girl?" She said as she started moving up the front steps. "I'm gonna take them home and wash them so y'all'll (1) have something to wear that doesn't smell like smoke."

After I protested and she insisted, the three of us went into the chokingly unpleasant air of the house to get some clothes. Maxine also insisted on getting an armful of linens out of the linen closet to see if some of them could be resurrected.

Victoriana stayed in the house to start on the clearing some of the stuff out, mostly the rest of the linens Maxine hadn't taken. While she did that, I went out to sit with Jason on his tailgate so I could eat a little breakfast. I was surprised at how hungry I was. I guess all that worrying could use up a lot of energy.

Right after Maxine left, Tara drove her new car into the clearing, followed by her part-time help, a tall young woman called McKenna, who was driving Tara's old car.

After a hug and a few words of sympathy, Tara said, "You drive this old Malibu while you're getting your insurance stuff straightened out. It's just sitting in my carport doing nothing, and I was just about to put it in the paper in the For Sale column. You can be using it."

"Thank you," I said in a daze. "Tara, that's so nice of you." She didn't look good, I noticed vaguely, but I was too sunk in my own troubles to really evaluate Tara 's demeanor. When she and McKenna left, I gave them a limp wave good-bye.

After that, Terry Bellefleur arrived. He offered to demolish the burned part for a very nominal sum, and for a little bit more he'd haul all the resultant trash to the parish dump. He'd start as soon as the police gave him the go-ahead, he said, and to my astonishment he gave me a little hug.

Sam came after that, driven by Arlene. He stood and looked at the back of the house for a few minutes. His lips were tightly compressed. Almost any man would have said, "Pretty lucky I sent the vampire home with you, huh?" But Sam didn't. "What can I do?" he said instead.

"Keep me working," I said, smiling. "Forgive me coming to work in something besides my actual work clothes." Arlene walked all around the house, and then hugged me wordlessly.

"That's easily done," he said. He still wasn't smiling. "I hear that the guy who started the fire was a Fellowship member, that this is some kind of payback for you dating Bill."

"He had the card in his wallet, and he had a gas can." I shrugged.

"But how'd he find you? I mean, no one around here..." Sam's voice trailed off as he considered the possibility more closely. He was thinking, as I had, that though the arson could be just because I'd dated Bill, it seemed a drastic overreaction. A more typical retaliation was a Fellowship member throwing pig's blood on humans who dated, or had a work partnership with, a vampire.

That had happened more than once, most notably to a designer from Dior who'd employed all vampire models for one spring show. Such incidents usually occurred in big cities, cities that hosted large Fellowship 'churches' and a bigger vampire population.

What if the man had been hired to set fire to my house by someone else What if the Fellowship card in his wallet was planted there for misdirection?

Any of these things could be true; or all of them, or none of them. I couldn't decide what I believed. So, was I the target of an assassin, like the shape-shifters? Should I, too, fear the shot from the dark, now that the fire had failed?

That was such a frightening prospect that I flinched from pursuing it. Those were waters too deep for me.

Jason left soon, right before the state police arson investigator. Arlene had taken and instant interest in him which he seemed to return. For her sake I hoped Dennis Pettibone was a better man than her string of ex-husbands and lovers. She had managed to coax a promise out of him to visit her at Merlotte's later that evening. Arlene worked fast.

Before she and Sam left, Arlene offered me her couch. It was a nice gesture, but it left Victoriana out in the cold and her already cramped trailer more crowded. Sam offered two of the bedrooms in his trailer to me and Victoriana, only one of them had a bed. I couldn't help but think of all the rumors that would start up once it was public knowledge that Sam Merlotte had two unmarried women living in his trailer with him. I said as much and he pointed out that people would talk just as much if we stayed with Bill and Charles.

I thanked them both for their kind offers. As it stood, it looked like we'd be bunking at Jason's house. I didn't think his full-blooded were-panther girlfriend would mind me, but I couldn't imagine her being too excited about Victoriana staying there. The faster we got the house cleaned up, the better.

Victoriana came out into the yard with her arms full of dripping linens and dropped them into a pile with the rest. Once we had emptied the house we would give them all a quick wash and hang them out to dry the prevent mildew. She smelled very smokey now after going through the house, I imagined I smelled the same way. In between talking to those who had come to offer help, I had been right in there with her cleaning and clearing.

A huge ancient pickup truck lumbered to a stop behind Arlene's car. Out of it stepped Trey Dawson, the huge Were who'd been acting as Calvin's bodyguard and Victoriana's employer. He gave a nod to Sam as he got into Arlene's car and the two drove off.

"Trey." Victoriana said and came to stand with us.

"Good to see you two are alright." He rumbled, his voice so deep I expected the ground to rumble.

"Hey, Dawson." I wanted to ask 'What are you doing here?' but that just sounded plain rude.

"Calvin heard about your fire." Dawson said, not wasting time with preliminaries. "He told me to come by and see was you hurt, and to tell you that he is thinking about you and that if he were well, he would be here pounding nails already."

I saw from the corner of my eye that Dennis Pettibone was eyeing Dawson with interest. Dawson might as well have been wearing a sign that said DANGEROUS DUDE on it.

"You tell him I'm real grateful for the thought. I wish he were well, too. How's he doing Dawson?"

"He got a couple of things unhooked this morning, and he's been walking a little. It was a bad wound," Dawson said. "It'll take a bit." He glanced over to see how far the arson investigator was. "Even for one of us." He added.

"Of course, I appreciate you coming by."

"Also, Calvin says his house is empty while he's in the hospital, if you need a place to stay. He'd be glad to give y'all the use of it."

That, too, was kind, and I said so. But I would feel very awkward, being obliged to Calvin in such a significant way.

Dennis Pettibone called me over and I excused myself from Victoriana and Dawson as they started talking. "See, Ms. Stackhouse," he said. "You can see where he used the gasoline on your porch. See the way the fire ran out from the splash he made on the door?"

I gulped. "Yes, I see."

"You're lucky there wasn't any wind last night. And most of all, you're lucky that you had that kitchen door shut and a wet towel jammed underneath it." He pointed to the door that stood between the kitchen and the rest of the house. "When the firefighters smashed that window on the north side, the fire ran that way looking for oxygen, instead of trying to make it into the rest of the house."

I remembered Victoriana saying she had shut all the doors in the house. It could have been so much worse.

"After a couple of days, I don't think the bulk of the house will even smell as bad," the investigator told me. "Open the windows now, pray it don't rain, and fairly soon I don't think you'll have much problem. Course, you got to call the power company and talk to them about the electricity. And the propane company needs to take a look at the tank. So the house ain't livable, from that point of view."

The gist of what he was saying was, I could just sleep there to have a roof over my head. No electricity, no heat, no hot water, no cooking. I thanked Dennis Pettibone and excused myself to have a last word with Dawson, who'd been listening in with Victoriana.

"I'll try to come see Calvin in a day or two, once I get this straightened out," I said, nodding toward the blackened back of my house.

"Oh, yeah," the bodyguard said, one foot already in his pickup. "Calvin said let him know who done this, if it was ordered by someone besides the sumbitch dead at the scene."

I looked at what remained of my kitchen and could almost count the feet from the flames to my bedroom.

"I don't think it was him." Victoriana said causing both mine and Dawson's head to snap in her direction.

Dawson got out of his truck and came back over to stand with us while I waited for Victoriana to continue. Of course, she didn't. One of these days, I would grow accustomed to her strange conversational skills or she would pick some up. Until that day, I would have to step up to the plate. "Why do you think that?"

"I do think he set the house on fire, but I'm, not certain he knew he was doing so." She had been watching Dennis walk around the house making notes, but turned back to us. "You said vampires have the ability to impose their will on humans?" I nodded. "I believe Charles did this to the man he killed. I have no clue into his motives, however."

I glanced to Dawson who looked grim. The majority of the two-natured did not like vampires and the feeling was heartily returned.

"I can't think of any reason why he'd want me dead." I said. "He's always been pretty friendly to everyone."

"Sounds like you need to call that vamp in Shreveport and ask what's up." Dawson said. I had no doubt he'd report this all to Calvin.

I frowned and looked down to my shoes, the ones Victoriana had brought me last night. I didn't want to believe that the charming Charles Twining would do me harm. "What makes you think Charles glamoured that man?"

"You saw him." She said. "He lead a sedentary life, probably very boring work behind a desk. If he were in his right mind and attempting to set fire to someone's home whether they were inside or not, he would have produced adrenalin. Its a scent that lingers on a corpse and one that wasn't on his."

Dawson seemed to know what she meant as he made a few gruff noises of agreement in his throat. My sniffer was pretty low tech compared to most supes.

"Also, the door leading to the back porch was unlocked and open." She said with a grim frown. "If vampires are so flammable, wouldn't he have gone out the front door rather than risk burning through the back?"

I let that sink in. Now that I thought about it, Claudine had had to pause to wrench open the front door to get me out of the house.

"At anytime while Claudine was there, did Charles leave the bar?"

I racked my brain. "He asked to borrow my keys so he could move his bag to my car. I'm pretty sure that was while Claudine was there."

"I believe Charles choose Jeff Marriot as his false arsonist because he was passing through. During the time he borrowed your keys, he met Marriot in the parking lot and gave him orders to acquire the gasoline and park nearby." What went unsaid was that she thought he parked on that old four-wheeler trail out by my property line. The same spot Debbie Pelt had chosen when she had decided to kill me. "I heard him leave the house to wander the woods at one and fell asleep soon after. I woke up to the smell of smoke at one-twenty three."

"Wait." I said holding my hand up. "You have super hearing, why didn't you hear him sneaking around?"

Victoriana's frown deepened. "After the scuffle between Bill and Charles, I put in ear plugs. I can hear around them to an extent."

That scuffle had been humiliating with how jealous Bill had been. "Alright, so all this is pointing to Charles, but why would he do it?"

"He's the one bartending for Sam while his leg is healing?" Dawson said. "Maybe he's the one behind the shootings?"

"That would be plausible," Victoriana said.

"I don't think Charles is behind the shootings. Besides, I've been hearing on the news that there's been random shootings like this all across the south. If a vampire wants to kill someone he doesn't shoot them. And it still doesn't explain why he would want to hurt me in the first place."

We lapsed into a thoughtful silence. I'd definitely be calling Fangtasia as soon as the sun set. Victoriana had made a lot of good points and it left me feeling uneasy, especially since I worked with Charles tonight. For now, I'd just have to be careful not to be alone with him.

A/N

1 Y'all'll – You all will.

I have lived in the south my entire life and have used this word many times.

Jooheika- While my OC won't be Sookie's love interest, this isn't going to be a Eric/Sookie. It's a surprise, but I'm sure you'll figure it out before I get around to writing the romancing bits.

I've been reading fics in the True Blood section, specifically, Godric/Sookie. There's a lot of threesomes and Bill bashing. I don't mind a good devious Bill every now and then, but it just seems like everyone hates Bill. Also, there are just way too many threesomes, they are interesting of course but they are all pretty much the same. My secret guilty pleasure for the last couple of days is to find a Godric/Sookie time travel fic where she goes back in time and stumbles upon a feral Godric. Hell, even SVM section, I'd like to see maybe the depressed Godric stumble upon a younger Sookie. He prefers the young regardless of age. At least that's what I took away from it.

Anyway, sorry to ramble, I'm just hoping to find some interesting stories y'all may have come across. Please, leave a review of how I'm doing with this fic. Some big changes are coming in the coming chapters, stay tuned.


	12. Chapter 12

When I got home from work, I found Victoriana leaning back on the front step looking up at the sky. I joined her, exhaustion pulling me down like a ton of bricks. The stars were twinkling above us letting me know it probably wouldn't rain and ruin what was left of the house. I heaved a deep reaching sigh and relaxed into the steps. Tomorrow before work, I'd set up the lawn chairs.

We sat in silence for a couple minutes, just listening to the night sounds. It was the first peaceful moment I had had all day and I wasn't eager to end it. I tried to milk this instance for all it was worth and not think about everything I had to worry about concerning Charles, my house, the shooter, Bill, Alcide, the Leeds, the Pelts and Jeff Marriot's family. It didn't work.

"Jeff Marriot's mother and twin brother came into Merlotte's right before my shift ended."

While I was sprawled on the steps like an elderly person who had taken a fall, Victoriana was leaned back with her elbows resting on the fourth step from the ground with a grace I couldn't imitate. She tore her gaze away from the stars to glance at me from the corner of her eyes. "Oh?"

"They were very upset and don't think he did it." I had felt awful the entire time I had been talking to them in Sam's office. They had been desperate for some sort of shred of hope that their loved one hadn't committed such a heinous act. "His brother said that Jeff didn't keep his wallet in his jacket pocket where Andy found it, that he kept it in his pants pocket."

She nodded and looked back to the stars. "Most men keep their wallet in their pants pockets. The Fellowship of the Sun membership card could have easily been planted."

"After they left, Sam kissed me."

Victoriana turned her head fully at this admission, her eyebrows raised. Normally, I wouldn't think to talk to her about such things, but maybe a new perspective would enlighten me.

"And then Bill walked in and attacked him."

I didn't necessarily appreciate her snort of amusement.

"You've alluded that you and Bill used to have a relationship of sorts in the past. What happened?"

I launched into how I met Bill and how we started dating and then what finally happened in Jackson where it all ended. Victoriana remained silent, throughout the retelling.

"You have four men vying for your attention. Sam, Bill, Eric and Alcide." She said. "You've known Sam for the longest amount of time and he's shown interest in perusing a sexual relationship with you, but is waiting patiently for you to decide." I nodded. That was basically it.

"Bill, you had a relationship with, but he betrayed your trust and is actively discouraging any potential suitors and attempting to mend your broken bonds?"

Another nodding.

"Eric, you had a heated one week romance with while he was under a spell and now he doesn't remember your affair and has been discontent since."

More nodding.

"You and Alcide have not had a relationship but have circled each other without taking further steps."

"Pretty much." There was a lot of other things, but that was the summery of my relationships with the four men in my life.

"The relationships are strange and complex in this dimension." Victoriana said after a moment of thought. "What is it that you want long term out of a partnership?"

I used to think I knew. But then I had started dating, humans at first (which was terrible) and then Bill who was a vampire. I heaved a sigh and closed my eyes.

"Do you want children?"

I thought about that for a long moment. What with the way I knew the world was now, did I want to bring one child or more into this world? "Yes, I do." Even with Bill, I had entertained bizarre fantasies about raising a family with him in this house.

"That eliminates vampires." Victoriana said. "That's not to say you can't still rut around with them. However, if you want children, then you need to choose a partner who can give them to you."

Dating vampires seemed like a terrible and painful idea the more I learned about the supernatural world hidden around us. Bill was still hostile toward anyone who showed interest in me, and Eric wasn't much better (though he knew how to be subtle about it), even though he couldn't remember our time together.

"I think that might be for the best." I said after a while.

"If you choose to make Alcide your partner, you'd have to content yourself with the fact that one day he might choose to take on the role of pack master." I had always pictured Alcide as a pack master. "In which case. He'll need to break your vows not only to cement his leadership, but to add to the pack as well."

"I need someone who'll be faithful to me."

"That narrows it down to Sam."Victoriana said. "How do you feel about him?"

An hour ago, I would have said I was all for Sam. But now that I had time to cool off and had some perspective, I wasn't so sure. He was a handsome man who was hardworking and loyal. He would make a great boyfriend and if we did ever have children, they would be beautiful as well. But all the instances I'd shared with him in the past were only sparks. A flash of light and lust and then it was gone in the next moment. I often felt terrible after these occurrences, he must think I'm stringing him along while I'm between lovers.

"I think Sam might only be a friend." That leaves me with no one.

Victoriana had the uncanny ability to be able to read my thoughts without the aid of telepathy. I had met a couple of people like this, but not to the extent that she was capable of. It could probably be attributed to her previous doings in her world. "They aren't the only men out there, that tall, hairless man at the funeral seemed interested."

I knew who she was talking about immediately, but I hadn't thought about him since to be honest. He was most certainly handsome and a supe of some type, maybe a shifter or a Were, Christine hadn't said anything about him when I had asked. He looked like the alpha type and if he was a Were than I'd have the same problem with him as I did with Alcide. Well, at least my options were narrowed down to someone new.

Not long after, we gathered a few essentials and headed to Jason's house. He was in a foul mood, apparently he had gone a calling on Crystal earlier and she had turned him away. I was so mad I could just spit. Victoriana went to the room we'd be sharing while we were here without a word. I had no doubt she could hear every word as if she were sitting between us but that little fact didn't stop me from yelling just as loud as Jason was.

It went on like this for a while.

After he'd grudgingly agreed to stay away from his fellow shifters, I carried my bag down the short hall to the guest bedroom. This was where he kept his computer, his old high school trophies from the baseball team and the football team, and an ancient foldout couch on hand primarily for visitors who drank too much and couldn't drive home. Victoriana had pulled out the fold out bed and made it up for us. I slid into my side and she shut the lights off.

After I said my prayers, I reviewed my day. It had been so full of incident that I got tired trying to remember everything. In about three minutes, I was out like a light. I dreamed about growling animals that night: they were all around me in the fog, and I was scared. I could hear Jason screaming somewhere in the mist, though I couldn't find him to defend him.

Sometimes you don 't need a psychiatrist to interpret a dream, right?

I woke up just a bit when Jason left for work in the morning, mostly because he slammed the door behind him. I dozed off again for another hour, but then I woke up decisively. Terry would be coming to my house to begin tearing down the ruined part, and I needed to see if the heat from the fire had ruined anything besides my appliances before he started.

I grabbed some of Jason's clothes and met Victoriana out in the kitchen where she was standing with a bag of breakfast sandwiches by the counter. She had borrowed the Malibu Tara had lent me to grab breakfast for us. Victoriana was a big eater and was always munching on something, I hadn't accidentally skipped a meal since she had come into my life and occasionally found her stuffing her pockets with snacks.

As I started Tara's car, I wondered how on earth I could repay her for its use. I reminded myself to pick up her suit. Since it was on my mind, I made a slight detour to retrieve it from the dry cleaner's.

Terry was in a stable mood today, to my relief. He was smiling as he smacked away at the charred boards of the back porch with a sledgehammer. Though the day was very cool, Terry wore only a sleeveless T-shirt tucked in his jeans. It covered most of the dreadful scars. After greeting him and registering that he didn't want to talk, I went in through the front door, Victoriana on my heels. I was drawn down the hall to the kitchen to look again at the damage.

The firefighters had said the floor in the kitchen was safe, but it made me nervous to venture too close to the back door where the linoleum was scorched. While Victoriana worked on the rest of the house, I worked on the kitchen. I pilled on gloves and began to work. Going through cabinets and cupboards and drawers. It had gotten very hot in the kitchen and as a result some of the plastic and metal knickknacks had melted. For instance, the junk drawer that had held every key that had come through this house had melted into a silver and copper blob. The morning after the fire, the sight of it had caused me to burst into tears and it wasn't any easier this morning. I tossed all the ruined things out the south kitchen window, away from Terry.

I didn't trust any of the food that had been in the cabinets that were on the outer wall. The flour, the rice, the sugar they'd all been in Tupperware containers, and though the seals had held, I just didn't want to use the contents. The same held true of the canned goods; for some reason, I felt uneasy about using food from cans that had gotten so hot.

Every now and then I'd see Victoriana carry something out into the yard. She had given most of the linens a quick rinse yesterday and hung them out to dry but they would still need to be run through the washer properly. Today she was moving all the furniture out into the yard to air out though we both agreed that they may need to be steam cleaned.

After three and a half hours of working, Victoriana and I had decided to take a break out in the yard. I had shed Jason's work jumpsuit I had borrowed that morning and had rolled my sleeves up. It was only about sixty degrees out, but the sun was shining and I was sweating. Victoriana had brought along a thin little jacket that she left in the car and had been in short sleeves all day.

"How are you always eating?" I said, eyeing the bag of dry roasted peanuts in her lap. "Don't you ever get full?" If I ate as much as she did, I'd be as big as the Bellefleur Mansion.

Victoriana looked down to her snack and then back up at me and shrugged. That's about the answer I expected. Though, I didn't think she needed to look so unapologetic about it.

We were sitting on the lawn chairs I had set up and I was working up an enthusiasm to finish the rest of the kitchen when Victoriana turned her head to look down the length of the driveway. A minute later I heard the sound of a truck, immediately followed by the sight of it. To my astonishment, I recognized it as Alcide's truck, and I felt a pang of dismay. I'd told him to stay away.

He seemed miffed about something when he leaped out of the cab. "Why didn't you tell me?" He bellowed as his feet touched the ground. I was glad Terry had taken off to haul a load to the dump. He never responded well to hostile men toward women. Not that I thought Alcide would hurt me.

"We aren't big buddies right now." I reminded him. "But I would have gotten around to it. It's only been a couple of days."

You should have called me first thing." He told me, striding around the house to survey the damage. He stopped right in front of Victoriana and I. She was watching him like she did the history channel. "You could have died." He said to me as if it were big news.

"Yes." I said. "I know that."

"A vampire had to save you." There was disgust in his voice. Vamps and Weres just didn't get along.

My mouth dropped open a little as though I'd been slapped. It wasn't what Alcide had said or how he said it. It was that I had completely forgotten to call Eric and ask him about Charles.

Alcide stopped his tired. "What?"

"We believe that Charles, the vampire, was behind the fire, though we haven't yet determined a motive." Victoriana said as though she were commenting on the weather.

"What?" It was more of a growl than an actual word. Alcide's eyes were hot with anger.

Victoriana turned to me. "Did you ever call Eric and ask him about Charles?"

I shook my head 'no'. "I was just so tired yesterday and so busy with all of this," I waved my hand at the porch. "that I completely forgot about it."

"Where is he now? He's not still staying with you is he?"

"He's staying with Bill right now." I said. "And we don't know for sure if he did do it."

"I'm reasonably certain he did."

I leveled a glare at Victoriana to let her know she wasn't being helpful. She popped a couple more peanuts in her mouth and went back to watching Alcide who was now pacing the patch of grass in front of our chairs like a lion in a cage. "I'll call Fangtasia tonight, as soon as the sun goes down." I promised him and myself.

Alcide looked like he wanted to say more, I could hear exactly what he wanted to say, but he thought better of it and turned toward the charred portion of my house. "Someone's working on tearing down the damaged part already?"

"Yes."

"I could have gotten a whole crew out here."

"Terry volunteered."

"I can get you a good rate on the reconstruction."

"I've lined up a contractor."

"I can loan you the money to do it."

"I have the money thank you very much."

That startled him. "You do? Where'd-" He stopped himself before he said something rude. "I didn't think your grandmother had had much to leave you." He said, which was almost as bad.

"I earned it." I said.

"You earned money from Eric?" He guessed accurately. He looked mad enough, that I thought he might reach down and attempt to shake some common sense into me.

"You just calm down, Alcide Herveaux," I said sharply. "How I earned it is none of your damn business. I'm glad to have it. If you get off your high horse, I'll tell you that I'm glad you're concerned about me, and I'm grateful you're offering me help. But don't treat me like a slow fifth grader in the special class."

Alcide stared down at me while my speech soaked in. "I'm sorry. I thought you- I thought we were close enough for you to've called me that night. I thought... maybe you needed help."

He was playing the 'you hurt my feelings' card. Victoriana had finished her peanuts and was looking between us like she was watching a tennis match. She did this a lot. I think she studies people like this in order to assimilate to our world, it seemed like something she'd do.

"I don't mind asking for help when I need it. I'm not that proud," I said. "And I'm glad to see you." (Not totally true.) "But don't act like I can't do things for myself, because I can, and I am."

"The vampires paid you for keeping Eric while the witches were in Shreveport?"

"Yes," I said. "My brother's idea. It embarrassed me. But now I'm grateful I've got the money. I won't have to borrow any to get the house put into shape."

Terry Bellefleur returned with his pickup just then, and I introduced the two men. Terry didn't seem at all impressed by meeting Alcide. In fact, he went right back to work after he gave Alcide 's hand a perfunctory shake. Alcide eyed Terry doubtfully.

"Where are you staying?" Alcide had decided not to ask questions about Terry's scars, thank goodness.

"We're staying with Jason," I said promptly, leaving out the fact that I hoped that would be temporary. Victoriana had suggested we rent an apartment until we could move back in.

"How long is it gonna take to rebuild?"

"Here's the guy who can tell me." I said gratefully.

I spent the next thirty-five minutes with Delia Shurtliff, my contractor Randy Shurtliff's better half and manager of his business, while Alcide and Randy talked shop. I was a little annoyed at being ignored but Delia was able to show me some estimates on a similar project they had done last month. I'd end up using up half the money I had made hiding Eric to repair the damage to my kitchen and rebuild the back porch. At least I'd still have about half of it in case Charles tried to set the rest on fire.

Victoriana had left when Randy and Delia pulled up to go talk with Terry. I had noticed she tended to drift toward those who were physically her age as opposed to some of the younger guys intent on helping her forget her (imaginary) no good ex. I wondered if occasionally she regretted the story we had spun about her time in Dallas, because every time she came to the bar, whether for lunch or dinner, someone always bought her a drink. And every time she would turn them down, I'd get a particular raunchy thought about what Victoriana and I got up to when we were at my house. Even if they did think I was crazy, they still thought two women together was pretty hot. Well, now three, after word about Claudine's sleepover the other night had gotten around.

After Delia and Randy left, Alcide dropped a bomb on me. He wanted to me to move in with him. Truly, I was flattered, and I tried to express that after I got over the shock from the suddenness of it. I was going to stick firm to the decision I had made last night. As great as Alcide was, I did think I needed to look around a little bit before I started dating again. Lucky for me Andy Bellefleur showed up before Alcide could read too much into my answer.

I was happy to see him until he started his usual accusatory and highly rude questions. "Listen to me, Andy," I said, and I looked right back into his eyes. "I never did anything to you that I know of. I've never been arrested. I've never even jaywalked, or been late paying my taxes, or sold a drink to an underage teen. I've never even had a speeding ticket. Now someone tried to barbecue me inside my own home. Where do you get off, making me feel like I've done something wrong?"

"I don't think there's anything in this guy's past that would indicate he'd do this to you."

I didn't think there was either.

"Fine! Then find out who did! Because someone burned my house, and it sure wasn't me!" I was yelling when I got to the past part. My only recourse was to turn and walk away, striding around the house until I was out of Andy's sight. Terry gave me a sidelong look, but he didn't stop swinging his sledgehammer. I didn't see Victoriana anywhere.

Alcide left soon after and I returned to work for another hour before getting dressed in my work clothes. Victoriana decided to go along with me to work, especially when she knew Charles would be working. I promised to use Tara's house phone to call Eric when I detoured to drop off the pink and black suit at her house.

Her car wasn't there, so I figured she was still at the shop. I let myself in and went back to her bedroom to put the plastic bag in her closet. The house was dusky and deep shadowed. It was almost dark outside. Suddenly my nerves thrummed with alarm. I shouldn't be here. I turned away from the closet and stared around the room. When my eyes got to the doorway, it was filled with a slim figure. I gasped before I could stop myself. Showing them you're scared is like waving a red flag in front of a bull. I couldn't see Mickey's face to read his expression, if he had any.

"Where did that new bartender at Merlotte's come from?" he asked.

If I'd expected anything, it wasn't that.

"When Sam got shot, we needed another bartender in a hurry. We borrowed him from Shreveport," I said. "From the vampire bar."

"Had he been there long?"

I felt the warm glow I had come to associate with Victoriana growing closer to my location. She must be in the house somewhere, I didn't know why, but I was thankful. If one of us could hold their own against a rogue vamp, it would be her.

"No," I said, managing to feel surprised even through my creeping fear. "He hadn't been there long at all."

Mickey nodded, as if that confirmed some conclusion he'd reached. "Get out of here," he said, his deep voice quite calm. "You 're a bad influence on Tara. She doesn't need anything but me, until I'm tired of her. Don't come back."

The only way out of the room was through the door he was filling, two glowing yellow eyes loomed behind him in silence. I didn't trust myself to speak. I stood my ground by the closet and held my breath as Mickey raised his eyebrows in annoyance and Victoriana's brain pulsed electricity. And then, there was an object sticking through Mickey's chest and a frozen expression of surprise across his pale face. He dropped to the floor like a sack of bricks and began flaking. Now that I got a good look at it, the object sticking out of his chest looked like a branch, maybe from the tree out in the front yard.

Victoriana crouched down to get a better look at him and poked his cheek. "How convenient." She muttered.

"You killed him." I said, stunned.

"Yes."

I placed a hand over my heart, one of these days it was just going to jump right out of my chest. Tara, I needed to tell Tara what happened. Would she be grateful that Mickey was finally dead, or would she be upset, he was kind of her boyfriend. The decision was taken out of my hands when I heard the front door open and close. I knew from the thoughts that it was Tara and that she had seen my car and was dreading what she'd find.

Victoriana stood up from her crouch and turned toward Tara who had appeared in the doorway with her her eyes as wide as I'd ever seen them. She didn't look at me and she didn't look at Victoriana, the entirety of her attention was solely focused on the fading vampire with the bloodied branch sticking out of his chest on the floor. I didn't want to be rude and take a cheaters peek inside her mind when she wasn't broadcasting, but I was sorely tempted.

And then, Tara kicked Mickey. A good hard kick to the ribs, I even heard a snap. She kicked him again for good measure and then burst into tears. I rushed to her side and pulled her further into the bedroom away from the body on the floor, to sit on the edge of the bed with me. I patted her back and let her get it all out, she needed it after living with all the terrorizing Mickey had rained down on her. I looked up when I caught Victoriana waving at me out of the corner of my eye. She made a couple of gestures to indicate she was going to remove the body, I nodded and left her to her own devices. I was pretty sure Micky would end up in the back of my trunk.

"I don't know how many times I stood over him while he was sleeping trying to force myself to stake him." Tara said, heaving a gut wrenching sob.

"He's gone now," I said, doing my best to sooth her. "You never have to worry about him again."

"I don't know how to thank y'all."

I combed my fingers through her ebony hair and shushed her. "You don't have to." I gulped down my rising fear. "In fact, lets forget this ever happened."

Tara pulled back from me and slid her arms from my back to my sides. Her face was blotchy and wet from her crying, but there was understanding there. She had been around vampires long enough to know how dangerous our situation had just become. With a firm nod, she agreed to never speak of what happened here, though, if a vampire really wanted to know what happened then it wouldn't be too hard to find out. I just hope no one came looking for Mickey and hoped his status as a rogue vampire helped out with that wish.

By the time we had cleaned up the bits of vampire flakes that had fallen off Mickey, said our goodbye's, disposed of Mickey's remaining ashes and clothes and stopped by the do-it-yourself car wash to vacuum my trunk, I was an hour and a half late and no one was happy with me. Arlene and Holly might have given me verbal forgiveness because of my recent situation with my smokey house, but their thoughts sang another tune. Sam at least was on the same track with his mouth and his mind and I appreciated it. I did not appreciate Bill showing up and sitting in my section with a date who was more educated and thinner than I am.

Victoriana took a seat at the bar and was immediately approached by Beau Donalds who was nearly as broad as he was tall. He wasn't the brightest or most handsome man I'd ever met, but he was honest and had a good job in construction. I was surprised to see that Victoriana was recuperating his interest. That was a first. I guess she liked them big.

I was just getting into the swing of things when Eric walked in with a frown that was absolutely glacial.

A/N

So, I guess this is the last chapter since no one seems interested anymore... I'm not fishing for reviews, but I'm getting zero incentive to continue this fic if no ones interested.


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